Con Sealed Hope
by AcausalTrilby
Summary: Minato Arisato is the Ultimate Therapist. Or at least that is what the few memories that he possesses tell him as he wakes up in a school surrounded by fellow students of exceptional talent.
1. Chapter 1-1

_He stood alone in the void of space. Above him stood the pitiless moon, its brilliant radiance casting a million shadows. As he looked upwards strange words echoed inside his head. "It may be possible now, with this newfound power... You may be able to defeat the one who cannot be defeated." A blue butterfly was the last thing that he saw before the world went dark._

The sound of familiar music roused him from his slumber and he reached up to find headphones over his ears. He had apparently slept slumped over a desk and his body felt stiff from the uncomfortable position. Apparently he was sleeping in a classroom, although he had no idea why since he had graduated…

A massive pain split open his head as he realised that he couldn't remember actually graduating. In fact he couldn't remember ever going to school at all. His mind was blank and fuzzy and any image that he saw was blinked away. Finally after a few moments his beleaguered brain coughed up something concrete.

"Minato Arisato," he said savouring the word and finding it to his liking. The name fit him like a glove and he was certain that he had worn it for a long time. The term Ultimate Therapist also came, but this time he was sure that he had worn it far less time, perhaps only a year or…

Pain shot through his mind when he tried to probe further and so he reluctantly relinquished his attempt to plunge the depths of his mind, instead choosing to examine the inside of the classroom. With the cameras on the walls and the steel beams over the windows it looked more like a prison than an actual school and he wondered just what crime he had committed to be sent here. A slip of paper caught his eye and he picked it up before opening it up and seeing a letter that was layered in poorly drawn hearts.

"_Welcome back Minato Arisato. Remember that the true power of humanity lies in their ability to bond with each other. Meet in the gym at eight for a surprise."_

Turning the page over he found a crudely drawn map with an arrow that pointed out his location and another that indicated the gym. The writing was childish and the drawings looked like they were made by a three year old but that was no reason to not heed the advice. He looked at the clock, finding that it was approaching eight very quickly, and then opened the door of the classroom to reveal a hallway. Memorising the map quickly he headed off in the direction of the gym as indicated by the letter before folding it up and putting it in his jacket pocket.

He strode down the hallway, listening to the music played by his MP3, enjoying the specific type of music that had been placed on it. Suddenly he felt a hand upon his shoulder and he turned to look at a shorter brown haired boy wearing a stylish hoody, although he wasn't as short if you counted that piece of hair on his head that stuck up straight, an ahoge he believed it was called. Reaching up to his head he removed the headphones from his ears before regarding the other boy; an act that appeared to make him nervous.

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "Do you know anything about where we are?"

"A school," Minato responded indicating the classrooms on the side of the hallway. "Hope's Peak Academy," he continued with the name feeling correct on his lips.

"Then why would Hope's Peak Academy be deserted all of a sudden?" the shorter boy asked himself only to refocus on Minato. "By the way I'm Makoto Naegi. I'm afraid that I only got into Hope's Peak by lottery."

"You have a good name. I'm called Minato Arisato," he stated. "Ultimate Therapist," he said after a while. The two of them continued their walk in companionable silence. Or at the silence was comfortable for Minato. It appeared less comfortable for his new companion.

"I liked your videos," he said suddenly causing Minato to raise an eyebrow at the mention of these videos he had never heard of. "I mean, I don't have depression or anything like that but I can see how they are so effective."

"Do you really think they're effective?" Minato asked. Of course he had no idea what these actual videos were but it was nice to hear his work complimented like that.

"Of course," Makoto replied instantly. "They say that the each of your videos increased the rate of recovery for mental illnesses nationwide and are being translated into over thirty different languages."

"You seem well read up on my career," Minato said as he continued walking.

"I… uh researched all the Ultimates when I was selected to go to Hope's Peak," Makoto said looking somewhat embarrassed.

"So you take an interest in other people's talent?" Minato asked. "Have you ever considered refining your own talent?"

"My talent is just luck though," Makoto said. "It's not like everybody else's here."

"Of course it isn't the same as everybody else's," Minato replied. "It's your own, and I didn't just mean luck. I'm sure that you possess a lot more talent than you are even aware of."

"I don't have any talent," Makoto admitted.

"It doesn't matter how many seeds are in the ground if nobody waters them," Minato replied. "There are many different kinds of talent and I'm sure that one day you will find your own brand." He turned around to look at Makoto who had fallen behind him as he came to a halt in the corridor.

"I'll put some effort into it," the shorter boy said catching up to him. "I shouldn't disregard evidence given by the Ultimate Therapist." Minato nodded to him only to freeze as with a cracking sound he felt his body shudder as a foreign feeling swept through it. Words burned into his mind and the image of a card blinked on his retinas.

**Thou shalt have our Blessing when you create a Persona of the Fool Arcana.  
You have established a new social link.**

"Are you okay," Makoto said immediately when Minato froze and the amnesiac waved him off immediately.

"I'm fine," he lied immediately ignoring the strange feeling for now. "We're at the gym anyway. Want to go in first and show them a friendly face?"

"We can go in together," Makoto said before walking to the door and placing his hands upon it and pushing it open at the same time as Minato pushed its opposite open. They were immediately confronted by a sea of faces, thirteen in total.

"You are late," one of the boys in a white uniform said, stepping forward out of the mass before pointing his finger at both Minato and Makoto. "You were instructed to meet at the gym at eight 'o clock."

"I was unavoidably detained," Minato replied immediately. "Unfortunately the party who gave us those instructions forgot to put their name and cellphone number on the instruction sheet. Even more unfortunately, I do not have a phone as it seems to have been taken from me when I entered the campus. It is just a day of bad fortune all around isn't it? Hey Makoto lend me some of your luck."

"Don't look at me," his shorter compatriot said. "I'm in the exact same position as you are."

"I see then," the boy inspected both of them with his red eyes. "It wasn't entirely under your control and thus I will let it slide just this time."

"Introduce yourself already so that we can get on with it," a blonde haired boy in rather nice suit said impatiently. "We have already wasted enough time waiting for you."

"I'm Makoto Naegi," his companion said first to the surrounding group. "I'm the Ultimate Lucky Student." Those same words of self-deprecation came from his mouth again but Minato had already addressed the situation and knew that it takes time to recover from low self-esteem."

"I'm Minato Arisato," he said as he scanned the room. "Ultimate therapist, my hours are between nine and three thirty; I take both walk in and appointments."

"Who the hell even cares about therapy now," the blonde haired girl spoke twin-tailed girl spoke out and Minato noticed her flinch almost imperceptibly as he turned towards her.

"I always believe it is a good time to improve your mental health," he stated, although he wasn't really sure of how true that was. Techniques for evaluating patients and multiple ways of helping them fix their problems were constantly in his head ever since he woke up. In fact they were the only thing that was in the empty space that constituted his memories.

"A healthy mind is required for a productive school year," the red-eyed guy in the white uniform agreed with him causing Minato to reconsider his words.

"Why don't we introduce ourselves," a short, tanned athletic student said before immediately getting shot down by a taller male with a perm. There was a flurry of dissenting opinions before eventually the consensus was that people should go around introducing themselves.

He watched as Makoto immediately seemed to dive into introducing himself to the various people and he scanned the room for a possible conversation partner before honing onto the blonde kid in the cool suit.

"I'm Minato Arisato," he said smiling at the strict looking student.

"Byakuya Togami," he said as if that explained it all.

"I'm sorry I've never quite got into punk rock," Minato said apologetically and he was gratified to see an expression on his face like he had been slapped.

"I'm the Ultimate Affluent Progeny you fool," the blonde heir said looking flabbergasted.

"Well how was I meant to know," Minato said defensively. "You speak as if I'm a member of high society."

"We have…" Byakuya started before he shook his head and regarded Minato with a suspicious glare. "You should go speak to the others and stop wasting my time."

Minato had a feeling that what he was going to say was something to the extent of we have met before and his reluctance to speak on it was likely due to his refusal to acknowledge that he went to therapy. It was a bit of a long shot but Minato had a hunch that he was right. Did he now suspect that Minato had lost his memory or did he believe that Minato was pretending not to notice him so that nobody would suspect that he had been a patient? He did not know Byakuya well enough to make an educated guess.

Looking around he picked a girl with purple hair as his next target. She stood in a thinking pose, as if contemplating her next move. Her expression was schooled and perfectly guarded as if she was had training in controlling her emotional cues. Frankly that spoke of an interesting skillset for a child to have and he wondered what her Ultimate Talent was.

"Hello," he said as he walked up to her adopting an open and welcoming posture. "My name is Minato Arisato, the Ultimate Therapist, who am I talking to?"

"Kyoko Kirigiri," she responded stiffly back, the posture of somebody who has something to hide.

"And your talent," Minato responded, taking notes on how she deliberately didn't mention her skills.

"Why should I tell you," she replied instantly.

"It would help foster trust between the two of us," Minato said stepping closer, observing as he did so that she didn't back up and instead tensed her body to react. "There are only two reasons that I think you could hide your talent."

"What are those reasons?" Kyoko said her curiosity barely visible.

"If you had a talent that you were not proud of were afraid to divulge," Minato said with his words only slightly above a whisper, noticing that her muscles appeared to relax slightly as he said that. "Or if you cannot remember your talent." 'Bingo,' he thought as an expression of shock flitted across her face.

"What would you say if it were either of those possibilities," Kyoko said quietly and cautiously.

"Welcome to the amnesia club Kirigiri," Minato said. "How about I book you in for a session sometime?"

"I might take you up on your offer," she said nodding seriously before he turned around and left her. There were quite a few other people that he hadn't talked to and he noticed that he was going through them noticeably slower than Makoto.

"It's nice to fucking meet you," was the response from a man that stood almost a head taller than him who had introduced himself as Mondo Owada the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader. He seemed unexpectedly nice if a bit hot-tempered.

Celestia Ludenberg was the false name of the girl with the large twin-drill clip-ons. His mind immediately came to the conclusion that she was trying to reinvent herself and that impression was strengthened when she mentioned that her title was the Ultimate Gambler. She was a born liar if he had ever seen one and he found himself analysing every one of her sentences for falsehood.

Sakura Ogami was apparently the Ultimate Martial and she had complimented his body after feeling him up and suggested a spar. She seemed honourable if a bit overly focused on her talent, not that Minato could begrudge her that considering his own situation.

Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Fashionista, appeared to hide a fear of him. He had no idea why, considering that it appeared limited to only him. He would have to apologize for whatever reason he had given to scare her later; if an apology was warranted. He would try and arrange a follow up talk with her when he had the chance.

Sayaka Maizono was the Ultimate Idol and seemed to have some form of feelings for the Lucky Student. Her smile was polite, but she looked noticeably on edge already and Minato resolved to set up an outlet for her frustrations, if not a full on counselling session.

Hifumi Yamada introduced himself as the Ultimate Fanfic Creator and seemed to be very passionate about his body of work. Minato didn't get it and the kid appeared to be fine for the moment so he only made a mental note to speak to him sometime.

Leon Kutawa was apparently the Ultimate Baseball Star and dreamed of being an idol. He seemed healthy, if a bit laid back and so Minato marked him with the same mental note.

Toko Fukawa was a complete and utter basket case and he didn't even have the chance to open his mouth before she accused him of looking down on her in one of the clearest case of an inferiority complex he had ever seen. He had strongly suggested that she come for counselling and even set up an initial appointment for a few days from now in a time and place to be later decided.

Chihiro Fujisaki appeared to be rather nervous constantly apologizing and Minato found himself appreciating the irony that there were two people with severely low self-esteem in a course created for supposed Ultimates. He then did the same think that he did for Fukawa and suggested a counselling session at a later time and date.

Aoi Asahina, friends call her Hina, the Ultimate Swimmer, was a ball of sunshine. His first impression was that she was earnest but a bid dim and any dark hidden depths, if she indeed had any, were way down below the surface.

Lastly was Kiyoyaka, call me Taka, Ishimaru and Minato unfortunately was forced to admit that he didn't like him at the moment. Minato far preferred the use of soft power over just blatantly enforcing his will and he tended to get rebellious if people went around trying to one-sidedly enforce their will on him. It actually used to drive Mits…" A flash of red hair and a sudden pain shot through his skull as a remembered memory submerged itself again.

"Are you okay," the Ultimate Hall Monitor said looking concerned at his sudden movement.

"Sorry I was just remembering something that I read in the newspaper this morning," Minato excused himself.

"Sometimes I also feel that way when I read about the news in the papers," Taka said giving him a commiserating nod. "In response we must do our best to improve the news in the papers."

"I do believe in improvement Taka," Minato admitted to him as the pair found common ground.

"Howdy, hello is everybody there," a sudden voice silenced the noisy conversations and Minato focused on the direction of the voice behind the podium. In the next second a plump dual coloured bear popped up from behind the podium on the stage and landed on the top of the aforementioned plinth. "Good morning students of this illustrious institution. I hope you enjoyed your nap time. I am your Principal, the wonderful Monokuma."

The thing looked like a child's toy and had an upbeat tone of speech that felt… wrong. That was the only word Minato could use. The bear was likely controlled by the same person who was responsible for the skulduggery going on here. Minato focused on the bear, tuning out the students with the various chatter as he tried to get a handle on the personality behind the machine.

"No, no," the bear stated. "NASA would sell their collective kidneys to get one percent of all the hardware that was stuffed inside here, but don't tell them that. They're likely to be very em-bear-ased."

"There's no need to panda to their egos," Minato found himself saying almost unconsciously only to feel disgust well up within him. "But that means that the list of people that could have built you narrows down quite a lot. Has your corporation made any recent forays into the robotics field Togami?"

"No we haven't and I might have had to kill anyone of my employees that created something so ugly," he said with a look of disgust upon his handsome face.

"Do you really think so," Monokuma said looking depressed. "That's it I'm going to lose some weight with my patented all salmon diet. The next time you students see me you will barely be able to recognize me. You guys should also hit the gym and get used to the facilities. The fifteen of you are going to be here for quite a while."

"Just how long are you going to keep us here," Junko said with an exaggerated semblance of irritation. Interestingly enough to the young therapist Junko appeared to be playing up her actual feelings up, rather than hide them in this situation. Maybe it was a way of hiding her fear.

"Oh realistically sixty to eighty years," the bear said looking bored as he said that. "I doubt that I can get more than one of you over a hundred years unless somebody invents an immortality elixir or something like that."

"You are planning on forcing us to spend the rest of our lives here," Celeste confirmed with the bear.

"That's right," the bear said. "From now on you don't have to worry about that shitty old world. We have plenty of resources and time to make sure that your remaining years here are good ones indeed."

"That's not what we're currently worried about," it was Sayaka now who spoke up now.

"Well there is one way that you can get out of this school," Monokuma said looking thoughtful. "Would you like me to tell you how?" A few murmurs of agreement caused the Monokuma to tremble in rage. "Come on you dreary students. Showing such a dull response in front of your headmaster should be punished."

A few seconds later and a more falsely warm response, except for Taka the lunatic, and the bear sighed in disappointment.

"Alright if you really want to get out so badly then I guess I can tell you," he started. "If you want to leave then all you have to do… is kill one of your classmates." The bear appeared to go into spasms of pleasure as he said that and Minato mentally scheduled a session for him.

His words went on and on after that and Minato found himself watching the expressions of his classmates as well as their kidnapper. They seemed to be mostly that of shock and disbelief, and the majority still seemed to be suffering from a dissonance between the actual situation and their awareness of the situation. There were a few exceptions to the trend; both Kirigiri and Togami looked dead serious when contemplating the bear, the looks of worry on their faces were present but well hidden. Besides them Sakura, Celestia and Makoto appeared to be keeping a cool head.

His attempt at discerning the emotions of his classmates was undercut by one specific student suddenly losing all control over theirs. Minato watched with some alarm as the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader reached forward and grabbed the robot by the throat, holding it aloft. It was an impulsive move and not well thought out at all considering in the best case scenario it would destroy the Mastermind's puppet and in the worst case scenario it could result in death.

"Let me out or I swear to Christ I'm going to turn you into scrap," he said completely losing his temper and Minato took his eye off from the Biker to see every single eye on the room was focused on the spectacle. He turned his eyes back to the duo in time for him to hear a beeping sound emanate from the robot. He started moving towards Monokuma as soon as he started hearing it, as if he instinctively somehow felt that death was near.

"Throw it away now," Kirigiri instructed as the Biker stood there dumbfounded holding the bear aloft. Another warning from the Kirigiri and he threw the bear, a few seconds before it exploded and Minato felt that sensation of imminent death fade.

"What the fuck," Mondo said. "That bear fucking blew up."

"But doesn't that mean that the bear is gone," surprisingly it was the quiet Chihiro who said spoke up and there was a brief moment of hope before it was ruined by an identical Monokuma popping up from behind the podium.

"You tried to kill me," Mondo shouted, but his voice full of anger that couldn't quite hide his fear.

"Well I was trying to kill you but I'm feeling generous so I'll let you off with a verbal warning this time," his voice grew dark. "Violate one of the school rules again and you may have to suffer from some corporal punishment."

"You are clearly mentally unwell," Minato said stepping forward, unwilling to let the current state of affairs stand. "I am going to be hosting counselling sessions for those who feel as if they need them or would benefit from a helpful ear. "I expect you to attend."

"Hey," the robot stated sounding outraged. "Is that anyway to speak to your principal? If you continue like this then I might just give you some punishment."

"My apologies then," Minato replied as he saw the problem. "Let me rephrase that. You are a clearly unstable individual with a list of issues that I hope to address and in order to do this I require you to attend sessions with me which can be either booked in advance or walk-ins, if I am not currently involved in a session, Principal Monokuma."

"That's bearly acceptable," Principal Monokuma said. "I might swing around later kiddo. It is a principal's duty to support the development of the student's talents after all.

**Thou shalt have our Blessing when you create a Persona of the Devil Arcana.  
Your Devil Arcana Social link has reached rank 6.**

That was a really high social link and it startled Minato, causing disconcerting theories to swirl through his head, while Monokuma announced their new digital E-handbook that contained all the school regulations before reminding the class that any school regulation would not be tolerated and disappearing leaving a bunch of confused teenagers in the gym alone.

Chatter sprung up immediately once this was over and Minato observed the class nervously began to talk among each other. Many member of the class was clearly in denial over the fact that it wasn't a joke, although there was a clear and persistent minority that appeared to have the proper grasp on the situation. The luckiest of his classmates didn't seem to want to join in the conversation, instead heading to meet him.

"Why did you do that?" Makoto said to him looking almost angry at him. "You saw what he almost did to Owada. Weren't you afraid that he could do something to you also?"

"Afraid?" Minato said to himself, analysing the question briefly. "I don't believe I'm afraid at all."

"Really," Makoto said looking at him with widened eyes. "Are you sure you aren't the person who really needs therapy."

"Certainly I am not immune to the problems that may afflict my patients Naegi," Minato replied. "Knowing how to help others address their problems does not also naturally give me the ability to solve my own problems."

"What if I help?" Makoto asked, almost blushing as Minato turned to regard him. "I know I'm not qualified but I've always believed that listening to other people's problems can help out… a bit at least."

"Bold trying to tell me how my job is done," Minato started before he smiled. "But not entirely incorrect. The act of speaking aloud forces the issue to be acknowledged which is the first step to fixing the issue. I would be honoured if you became my confidant."

"The issue is not whether the bear has spoken the truth or not," Togami said, his voice easily carrying over the crowd. "But whether somebody might be tempted to test the veracity of his words."

The noisy air in the gym became silent as everybody simultaneously became aware of the fact that they could die at the hands of those around them. Minato watched as paranoia and fear sparked in the eyes of his fellow Ultimates. It seemed that the Togami heir had a talent for stirring up shit.

"Is this what we amount to," Kirigiri suddenly spoke up causing the tense atmosphere to break. The chatter started up again and Minato opened up his E-handbook, his eyes glancing past the name on the cover before he turned towards the regulations.

**Students may reside only in the school. Leaving campus is an unacceptable waste of time.**

**Nightime is from 10p.m to . Some areas are off-limits at night, so please exercise caution.**

**Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory will be seen as sleeping in class and punished accordingly.**

**With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore Hope's Peak Academy at your discretion.**

**Violence against Headmaster Monokuma is strictly prohibited, as is destruction of surveillance cameras.**

**Anyone who kills a fellow student and becomes "blackened" will graduate unless they are discovered.**

**Additional school rules may be added as necessary.**

Simple sounding rules with sinister implications considering the apparently terminal nature of the punishment. A loud bang was heard and he took his eyes off his rulebook to see Sakura Ogami attempting to break through the iron grates that separated the outside from the inside. She was ultimately unsuccessful and Minato debated for a few seconds whether he should go ahead before deciding against it. If the Ultimate Martial Artist was unable to break through then it is unlikely a counsellor could do better. On the other side Mondo and Leon were knocking at the podium, evidently trying to figure out just how Monokuma managed to show up with a similar lack of success.

"Don't give up," Taka began before launching into a short speech that seemed to energize the group, or at least most of the group. This composition of people was by no means homogenous and the Ultimate Therapist could see many disagreements would show up in future. He watched as Hina suggested they go explore the school which encouraged Taka and Leon to do the same.

"I'll be going alone," Togami said and Minato sunk his face into his hands.

"That's a pretty stupid idea," Junko spoke up. The fashionista looking dubiously at him and Minato couldn't help but agree. The blonde was like a walking, talking apple of discord and every time he opened his mouth he ratcheted up the tension in the room.

"Togami," he said wearily cutting off the heir in the middle of his speech accusing the room of plotting his murder. "Can you please just… give it a rest for today and just stop trying to make any more enemies in the middle of a killing game." His voice steadily rose as the sentence drew to a close.

"Very well," Togami said after glaring at him briefly. "If they cannot handle the truth then I will avoid educating them in future.

"You have my thanks Togami," Minato replied.

"We both know that your thanks are not worth very much," Togami said before turning and leaving the room.

"Hey asshole…" Mondo suddenly shouted only for Minato to step in front of him. The biker glared at him for a moment and Minato matched his glare before he relaxed his posture.

"Please calm down," he said making a sign telling him to lower the volume. "We must not allow ourselves to get all riled up in here. That means no hot language, no harsh confrontations, and no aggressive motions. Mondo you have almost died already today. Do you realise that your hasty actions almost meant that you would never see the outside again." His words were calm and mellow, his tone perfectly modulated to try and deescalate the situation and he scanned the biker's face for cues as he did so. "Every time that you think you're going to lose your temper I want you to take a deep breath and remember that there are people depending on you."

His mix of guesswork and experience seemed to work as Mondo turned his head away, shame reflected on his features. Minato just smiled in response shooting him a thumb's up before turning to regard the rest of the room.

"I am going to see if I've got a room," he announced to the group . "Once again, I'm available to talk any time you want to. Try not to tire yourselves out and remember not to miss any meals."

With that he gave one last smile before he walked out of the room. He made it to the end of the room before he stumbled, leaning against the wall. He wasn't a fan of talking with crowds at the best of times and he had acquired a steadily-building headache sometime after Monokuma had left that was stretching his patience even thinner.

"Puhuhu," the sickly voice of the aforementioned bear came from behind him and he turned around to see the bear snickering at him. "Maybe you should ask a doctor what's wrong with your head, head doctor."

"It probably has something to do with my missing memories," Minato replied yawning slightly. "I assume you had something to do with that."

"Wow it took you bearly any time to get it," Monokuma said.

"I simply wondered who here had the power to do this," Minato said blinking lethargically. "You were the only person who had the koalafications."

"That doesn't count," Monokuma said stomping his feet. "They are not real bears." He calmed himself down before he tossed him a key. "Keep going that way and you should be able to find your room easily enough." That was the last thing he said before he scuttled away and out of Minato's sight; the young Therapist feeling in a poor enough condition that he didn't want to track down the bear.

His room was easy enough to find and he was glad to find that the key easily allowed himself to gain access. Walking into the room and looking forward to taking a nap he was confronted by the bluest room he had ever seen. On one side of the room lay a navy Chaise Longue on which a person could lay back and relax and there was an armchair opposite it that took up a whole corner of the room. The bed seemed fairly standard and he had to restrain himself from lying down and going straight to bed. The bathroom was also decent with a standard shower, tap, toilet triumvirate and he took the opportunity to splash some water on his face to reinvigorate himself.

Lastly there was a small desk tucked away in the corner of the room filled with books on the human mind, some of which bore his name as the author. However none of those grabbed his eye, instead his eye was caught by two glass cabinets. One was flat and rectangular with two nails sticking out from a wooden bottom that would have normally held something, but at this moment were just a spot of distraction from the empty cabinet. On the bottom of the wooden floor were the words 'Training Wheels Have Been Passed On' in his own writing and while there was a flash of familiarity no memory was returned to him as a result.

The other glass cabinet was far more interesting to Minato. Unlike the first one that was quite flat, this one was in the form of a perfect square with a pillow in the bottom that contained a clear spherical indent. As Minato touched the glass case he could almost visualise the sphere that used to sit there, but was there no longer. Surprisingly enough the fact that somebody was running around with that object in their possession actually pissed him off, an emotion which he hadn't felt since he woke up.

Making a mental note to later ask Monokuma about the location of the sphere Minato removed his shoes and placed them in the designated place before he lay down in his bed without even changing his clothes. As soon as his head hit the pillow he had fallen into deep slumber. _His dreams were dominated by images of a war against a blonde, blue-clad woman with unimaginable powers and powerful allies._

**Author Note: I'm using a mix between anime and game depending on what I think flows better. There are obvious reasons why the protag is called Minato Arisato and not Makoto Yuuki.**


	2. Chapter 1-2

The sound of knocking on the door of his room was enough to rouse him from his sleep. Strangely enough there was no period of transitory drowsiness. One second he was dreaming of an attractive, deadly elevator attendant and the next he was awake in bed with knowledge that he was trapped in the school with fourteen other teenagers. He stumbled out of bed, noting that his headache had disappeared before he walked over to the door of his room and opened it up.

"You have been sleeping this early," Kyoko Kirigiri said to him looking at his dishevelled clothing and messy hair. "Do you have a condition or do you think it is a result of the memory loss."

"I think that it has to do with my amnesia," Minato said thoughtfully as he led the girl into the room. "I initially awoke with a splitting headache and the act of remembering seems to increase the pain. The fatigue probably came about as a result of that pain and both have been absent since I've awoken."

"How much have you lost," Kyoko asked curiously as she took a seat on the couch. Despite talking to Minato her eyes were constantly scanning the room and taking in all of the objects that were strewn across the room.

"Almost everything except the knowledge of my Ultimate Talent," Minato responded sitting in the arm chair. "How has your experience been?"

"I've lost all knowledge of my Ultimate Talent," Kyoko said, a small ironic smile gracing her lips. "You said that you have tried to remember. Were there any positive results?"

"I have seen small flashes but they were vague and I lack any context in which to place them," he said before a thought popped into his head. "Tell me something Kirigiri, have you ever heard of the Kirijo family?"

"I haven't," Kyoko said. "Should I have remembered them?"

"I don't know," Minato said. "Have you come to any conclusion why the mastermind took our memories specifically?"

"I believe that he thinks that my Ultimate Talent may be a threat to this game of his," Kyoko stated. "As for why they wiped your memory. I believe it is because they may have been a patient of yours and you would be able to recognize their mannerisms."

"That does seem like a possibility, but regardless I never divulge my patient's details," Minato stated firmly getting a judging look from Kyoko. "Yes, even if one of them is the mastermind I won't disclose the details of their meeting with me."

"Doctor-patient confidentiality doesn't always work that way," Kyoko pointed out.

"You seem to be well informed about certain legalities," Minato pointed out. "Besides it is not based on the law but on my code, besides this school has effectively become a world without laws. Don't mention this to the rest of them; it's best to maintain normality at this time."

Kyoko nodded in agreement although she didn't look happy and a silence stretched out between the two of them. Just as it was about to get awkward Kyoko spoke up once again.

"I didn't know you believed in Tarot cards," she said gesturing one of her gloved hands towards the bookshelf where a book titled "The Wisdom of Tarot" sat on the shelf, slightly apart from the other books on the human mind.

"I didn't know I did either," Minato said after a moment as he stood up from his armchair and walked over to the book in particular, feeling a compulsion to draw it from its resting spot, which he acted upon immediately. Immediately as he withdrew the book a deck of cards next to it fell onto the ground splattering all over the desk. Minato sighed to himself before he started to rapidly pick up the deck of cards, noticing as he did so that they were Rider-Waite tarot deck, and wasn't it a shock that he actually had information about that in his head.

"Here," Kyoko said as he finished putting the deck back together and he turned around to see her holding a card.

"Justice," Minato said as he plucked the card from Kyoko's gloves. "Truth, fairness, law and of course justice," he continued scrutinizing Kyoko as he did so before reaching for the card and slotting it into the deck. "It's the card of lawyers, judges and cops. Do you think you were any one of those three?"

**Thou shalt have our Blessing when you create a Persona of the Justice Arcana.  
You have established a new social link.**

"Maybe," Kyoko admitted after a few moments of contemplation, giving Minato time to recover his thoughts. "I don't believe in those cards but even I have to admit to that match." She paused for a moment and then spoke again. "You've given me a lot to think about," she said. "Goodbye."

He watched her as she left the room before he locked it himself. While he would like to go out and speak to the other students and figure out what had happened during his nap it was probably imperative that he changed out of his wrinkled clothes first. He decided to take a shower first as he couldn't even remember the last time he washed himself. Apparently the shower worked well, and he found himself enjoying the hot water. What he didn't quite enjoy was what came after it.

"Ha, ha, ha," Monokuma stood panting, one half of his body flushed red and what looked to be sweat pouring down his body. "Am I being seduced by my student? No I must stay strong. Your grades will not be increased, no matter how much you hold me down and ravish me."

"Isn't that against the regulations? Just what sort of relationship did we have Monokuma?" Minato asked as he walked towards the closet and started to dress, trying to ignore the leering eyes of his supposed principal.

"What do you mean by that?" the bear asked suspiciously. "Why are you certain that we had such a relationship in the first place?"

"I just feel as if there's a link between us," Minato said as he put on his pants. Despite his irritation with the robot he had to admit that he was pleased to see that his wardrobe was well stocked. A black suit and jacket with a bow tie seemed to be his standard suit as there were half a dozen of them but there were also trendy looking casual clothes.

"That's actually not boring," the bear said after a while, and Minato noted that his voice had slipped into an eerie monotone. "If you had to quantify the strength of our bond using a number; what number would you assign to it?"

"Six," Minato said as he put on his jacket and tied up his bow tie. Lastly he picked up his mp3 player before putting his headphones around his neck.

"Puhuhu," Monokuma chuckled to himself sinisterly. "Six is an unusually large number isn't it? It seems you've lost some of your inhibitions along with your memory. Why a few more links and you might be throwing me to the ground."

"Are you planning on giving me Stockholm syndrome," Minato said only for the bear to burst out into another bout of laughter. "Just what are these Social Links anyway?"

"I would be a beary, beary poor headmaster if I just dropped all the answers on your plate like that," the bear said as he grinned, his voice back to its 'normal' state. "By the way, did you like the gifts I got you?"

"The book and the cards," Minato said, drawing his own conclusions. "I knew I didn't see them yesterday. What possessed you to put them on my desk?"

"I'm a fair bear," Monokuma said chuckling to himself. "If I take something from you then it would only be right that I give you something back." His laughter burst into a crescendo and then he left; disappearing from the room so fast that Minato could barely track him.

"That bear's mind disturbs me," Minato said pointing the obvious out before taking another look at the deck of cards he had been given by the bear. Reaching for the deck he snatched a random card from the middle and flipped it open only to see a quite unusual sight.

"This card shouldn't be in a Rider-Waite deck," he said looking at the reversed Universe that was now in his hands. Feeling uncharacteristic nervousness he carefully turned the card over before placing it in the deck and slipping it into his pocket before heading outside.

xxx

Minato walked into the dining room only to see Makoto and Sayaka talking somewhat companionably. It appears that they may have found some common ground and become friends or maybe Makoto was just a natural ladykiller, he actually seemed like the type. As he walked up to the pair it was Sayaka who saw him first and she spoke to Makoto causing the Lucky student to turn around and look at him.

"Arisato you're back," Minato said guilelessly and Minato found a smile form on his lips at the open expression on his face. "I was getting worried because the… you know."

"I don't think we have any natural born killers here Naegi," Minato said contemplatively. "For all we know at this stage we could be released in a few days by the army or police force. It would be pretty idiotic to immediately spring to murder if that could be the case."

"Togami doesn't seem to think so," Makoto said quizzically.

"Togami appears to be very poor at actually reading people," Minato replied instantly. "Or very paranoid; I'm not sure which."

Makoto chuckled at that and Minato walked past them and into the kitchen where he was confronted by a variety of food.

"The food restocks every day according to Monokuma," Makoto shouted and Minato nodded in acknowledgement. That was good considering the fact that he felt like he could eat his own weight in food for the moment. While his memories were still pretty blank he did have a decent knowledge of cooking and thus he immediately went about making finding himself the biggest bowl and making yakisoba. He worked fast and it took barely any time whatsoever until he walked back into a half-full dining room holding a massive bowl of the delicious noodles.

"Ah Arisato you're back," Taka spoke up from his place standing by the table. "We were quite worried about you when you disappeared."

"I had a massive headache," Minato said putting down the bowl and picking up his chopsticks. "I took a much needed nap and it has subsided. Now if you will excuse me." Those were the last words he said before he brought his chopsticks and tucked into the meal, savouring its rich flavours.

"Who are we waiting for?" Junko said after a while, clearly annoyed by the presence of people and yet not a single person contributing anything meaningful.

"We agreed to wait until everybody got here to start this meeting," Celeste said politely as she twirled a lock of her hair extensions. "We are currently missing Togami, Kirigiri and Fukawa. It would be rude to start without them even if their own behaviour leaves much to be desired."

"I have vastly more important things than to deal with than a meet-up that was arranged without my input," Togami said as he entered the room with Fukawa following behind him. "Let's get on with it," he said sitting down. "If Kirigiri wants to find out what happened she can ask somebody afterwards."

"Alright does anybody have anything to report," Taka started. "What about you Arisato?"

"The beds are soft and the pantry is exceptionally well stocked," Minato said with a deadpan look as he momentarily put down his chopsticks. "I've been asleep Taka."

"Oh right," the Ultimate Hall Monitor said looking shamefaced. "What about you Togami," he said to the Ultimate Affluent Progeny who had gone alone.

"I tried to find some clues as to the identity of the mastermind but I came up with nothing," Togami said.

"Really?" Taka asked looking doubtful only to get a scoff from Togami who had clearly nothing more to say.

"I went with Hina and Ogami," Junko began. "We tried to pry off the plates on the windows but we had on luck."

"They wouldn't budge at all," Sakura spoke up confirming Junko's story. If anybody was able to move them it would be the Ultimate Martial Artist. That she hadn't done so indicated that escaping that way was impossible. "We also found out that the entrance to the second floor is blocked off and nothing that we could do would budge it.

"I went with Owada," Leon spoke up. "We found that the entranceway was blocked by a giant steel door. We must have tried everything," he said chuckling. "Nothing even put a dent on that damn door."

"I sat with Fukawa and Yamada in the gym," Celeste said somewhat defensively. "For the most part we just waited around. I'm afraid none of us are the detective sort."

"That's bullshit," Junko stated and she was not alone as Minato noticed Togami's face indicated he appeared to agree with the assessment.

"You left us behind…" Toko started and Minato mentally moved up her appointment, before he moved to intervene.

"What did you find Naegi," he said speaking over the Ultimate Writing Prodigy which cut her off and somehow caused her to blush and stammer.

"I went with Maizono and Fujisaki," he said speaking a tad louder as well. "We explored some of the rooms. Apparently there is a shop, an AV room, a trash room, communal toilets for some reason, a laundry room and the gym obviously."

"We also found out from Monokuma that the food restocks itself automatically each day," Sayaka spoke up.

"You saw him," surprisingly it was Junko who said this looking shocked for some reason and Minato took another look at the young woman before diving back into his yakisoba as they discussed the so called 'weaponized toy.' Now that he thought about it there would be significant difficulties in controlling the toy and it would require either a sophisticated AI to take off most of the load or a genius brain or both. That was something to think about for later.

"Good you're all here," the voice of Kyoko Kirigiri announced its owner's arrival as she walked through the room. That stoic expression on her face was still there as she walked up to the table and placed down a piece of paper.

"Kirigiri where have you been…" Taka started only to get cut off as he saw the piece of paper on the table. "A map of Hope's Peak Academy," he said looking dumbfounded. "Where did you find this?"

"It doesn't matter," Kyoko said only to be rebutted by Taka once again.

"It does matter," he said clenching his fists. "How can we trust you if you go and do things like this?"

"The building is laid out exactly like Hope's Peak Academy," Kyoko brought out causing a collective round of gasps from the group as they realised there was no doubt now that they were at their school.

The conversation devolved from then onwards as the group spoke, one after another, trying to find something that they could do together. Despite their superficial similarities both Togami and Ludenberg seemed to have opposite ideas of how to proceed. Togami appeared as if he wanted somebody else to be killed so he could better figure out the rules of the game, while Ludenberg appeared as if she wanted to prevent any deaths. Honestly Minato would probably be on her side in most cases but her proposed rules advocating no roaming during night-time were a little heavy handed with it in this situation. By imposing strict rules like that it meant that when somebody undermines those rules the whole system could fall apart.

Still the Ludenberg girl had a good point when she mentioned that it was about time to retire; as night was the time at which the dining room would lock. Minato definitely wanted to speak to somebody before that happened and so when the meeting dispersed he swiftly caught up to Togami before matching his stride.

"I would like to have a few words with you," he said brusquely knowing that the heir seemed to hate small talk.

"Talk then," he said not slowing down in the least.

"Can I assume that the Togami family is not behind this?" Minato asked blatantly causing the blonde student's step to falter for a second before he came to a dead halt.

"No," he said. "I can tell you that I'm not aware of any plan such as this, but even if you believed me then there is the possibility that it was a rival member of the family and this is aimed at me."

"If they deliberately target you then we can start ruling that as a possibility," Minato said keeping his options open.

"If it isn't my family the next most likely is the Towa family," Togami said with a slight note of distaste in his voice. "They are one of the strongest families in Japan and regularly conduct research into robotics. They would be the most likely, assuming it is a company."

"You think it may be a fellow Ultimate?" Minato said.

"I will not rule out the possibility," Togami replied. "What are your thoughts?"

"Controlling Monokuma would require incredible skill if it isn't AI assisted," Minato said.

"Do you suspect the Ultimate Programmer," Togami said looking doubtful.

"My instincts say no," Minato said truthfully. "I do feel that Monokuma is an exceptional individual however."

"Very interesting," Togami said musing on those words. "I shall take it under advice. Tell me immediately if something else occurs."

"I'm always available to talk," Minato replied as he turned around and went their separate ways. The Ultimate Therapist went back to his room before changing into his nightwear and lay down on his bed mulling over the events of the day while he listened to the songs on his mp3.

Two hours later he got out of bed having reviewed all the knowledge for the fifth time and having come up with nothing new. Maybe it was his nap during the day but his body felt full of energy with no tiredness at all. It took him another half an hour of sitting in his room before he got up, changed and walked to the door.

He felt a bit sorry for Ludenberg seeing as she put so much effort into getting everybody to follow her rules, and it was against his own principle of not stirring the pot, but he wanted to look around the school himself and night time was the perfect time to do it. Monokuma's rules already leaned towards no night time movement which meant that it might be the perfect time to see if the bear was moving about or if he also went dormant when the mastermind was asleep.

He slipped out of the room and quietly walked towards the direction of the allegedly locked dining room. As soon as he arrived there he could tell that it was definitely one hundred percent locked; in fact Monokuma might have gone a bit overboard in terms of the locking process as dozens of chains over the double doors signalled its absolute unwillingness to open. Seeing this he sidled up to the door and placed his ear on the side of the door, listening to any motion on the opposite side. Dead silence greeted him for a few seconds and then a slight rustling sound of clothes moving behind the door caused Minato to hold his breath as he realised that there was a very good chance that the mastermind was just behind this door. In retrospect the reason for them closing the dining room was likely so that they could either restock the room or have a meal themselves.

"What the hell are you doing up so late," the familiar voice announced her presence momentarily before her footsteps did. He turned and found that across the room stood Junko Enoshima, with a stern resolute look that almost perfectly masked the fear in her eyes.

"I was looking to see if there was anybody sinister was up at night," Minato said. As soon as Junko had spoken up he had heard a flurry of commotion on the other side of the door that faded into silence. "What's your reason, Enoshima?" he replied.

"I… uh couldn't sleep," Junko replied. "So I wanted to see if anybody else was out here. Maybe there were some secret midnight meetings that I was not invited to."

"No secret meetings," Minato said. "I'm afraid it's just you and I here tonight." As suspicious as the fashionista was being Minato had proof that she wasn't the mastermind and besides… he actually quite liked the fashionista. Despite her secrecy he found himself enjoying her forward, practical nature. "Want to play a game of cards," he said pulling out his tarot deck.

"What," Junko said looking confused for a moment as she stared at the deck. "Why that all of a sudden. Is that just an excuse to play strip poker and get me out of these clothes?"

"Firstly poker isn't great for just two people," Minato started. "Even if I was trying to get you naked then I would probably suggest Strip Rummy or Strip Go Fish. Secondly all I want is a game or two to pass the time. I'm afraid that I can't sleep currently and if you have nothing better to do then I might as well take advantage of your time."

"Okay, I can hang out with you for a bit," she said before sitting down on the hard floor. "Can you give me a refresh on the rules? I don't do this often enough."

"Okay," Minato said explaining the rules as extracted the major arcana and the page suit from the decks leaving him with all the cards that would be contained in a modern deck. About half an hour of playing later and Minato couldn't help but think that Junko was lucky that she didn't play for clothes as she would have lost the contents of her entire wardrobe within the first ten minutes. Junko was the first person he could ever remember playing at cards but he got the feeling that she would remain the worst for a very long time.

"Why the hell do you have this deck of cards anyway," Junko said as Minato won another hand. "I didn't peg you as somebody who was into the occult."

"I wouldn't say I dabbled with the occult but I got my hands on a deck when I was younger," Minato lied. "I was bored and so I learnt how to do the whole reading thing. Would you like a go?" he offered. Truthfully he didn't know if he believed in the cards at all but if he had this knowledge he might as well use it.

"Yes," Junko said after an unusually long period of silence. She looked uncertain but somewhat resolved. From a brief guess Minato would wager that she believed in the occult more than he did.

"Alright then," Minato said gathering the rest of the cards from the scene of slaughter before adding the other cards and shuffling the full deck before laying them out in front of the Ultimate Fashionista. "Pick a card representing your past. Don't flip it over yet," he said causing Junko to pause briefly before picking one of the cards in the left. "Pick a card representing your present," he said watching as she did the same thing again. "Pick a card representing the future," the process repeated a third time and Minato smiled. "Lastly pick a card that represents yourself. Now flip them over."

"Alright hit me," Junko said. "What cruel insights have you got out of me?"

"Your past is the Seven of Wands indicating that your past has been full of struggles," Minato said. "Did you have a lot of conflict growing up by any chance?"

"Do I look like a fighter?" Junko asked, not answering the question and Minato chose not to pry.

"Your present is the Lovers," Minato feeling interest stir at the presence of a Major Arcana; the symbol of an ongoing journey. "You will have to make a choice. Your decisions may not be easy and you may have to examine all consequences. Be mindful of whom at what you love and build your belief system around that."

"The future," Minato said as he looked at the final card. "That is honestly probably the worst card in the entire deck. Ten of Swords stands for betrayal and powerlessness. You will lose something important and hit rock bottom."

"Lastly," Minato said looking to the card that she had drawn last before shaking his head in wonder. "Death; the big one." He took a deep breath but continued to speak regardless. "You will go through a sudden or unexpected change or a significant period of transformation. You have the opportunity to let go of the older unwelcome parts of your life and in return gain new possibilities and paths. Remember that death is inevitable and that by resisting it you are only hurting yourself in the end. Christ, Junko that is a foreboding reading all together," Minato said feeling somewhat exhausted having gone through it all.

"I'm glad right now that I've never believed in this," Junko said giving him a tight smile.

"I can't blame you," Minato said packing up the rest of the cards. "It was good talking to you Junko." He had debated asking her to draw a card for the person she loved but with such an awful line-up already he decided to leave it.

"Likewise," the Fashionista said before a familiar noise appeared and words flashed before his eyes.

**Thou shalt have our Blessing when you create a Persona of the Death Arcana.  
You Death Arcana Social Link has reached level 3.**

"I will be heading back to sleep now," Junko said to him as she turned away leaving his mind in turmoil. "See you around."

xxx

**Leader of motorcycle gang. Has great pride in his gang.  
Gang was originally created by brother. Has great pride in his brother.  
Displays symptoms of guilt when talking about his brother.  
Anger stems from unaddressed feelings of guilt and shame?  
Low self-confidence? **

**Recommendation: Keep giving anger-management exercises. Remain friendly and interested talking about his brother and gang. Within a few sessions he should open up slightly.  
Pushing too hard might result in him going on the defensive.**

Minato set down his notes on the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader before he looked at his schedule. Mondo Owada had a few problems stemming from some unknown incident in his past. In addition he had a tendency to react badly when pressure was placed upon him. Despite what his tough exterior showed he had turned up for his session and showed a willingness to work with Minato. The Ultimate Therapist had full confidence that with time he would gain control over his emotions.

Chihiro Fujisaki had showed up and spent much of her time speaking about her work. The girl had very low self-confidence and a complex about her strength. There was some secret that she wasn't telling him but once again he wouldn't pry considering that it was only their first session.

Toko Fukawa was going to be a problem. She showed typical symptoms of an abused child but the scale was going to be a problem. Considering Monokuma flat out refused to give him the necessary medicine he was forced to take the slower approach and try to gain her trust before he could address the problem itself.

Those were all of his booked sessions for the day and so Minato slipped his notebook into his jacket pocket before stretching out and resolving to get an early supper. That plan was foiled by a knock on the door.

"Come in," he said and he watched as Makoto Naegi followed his instructions and came into the room. "Naegi, how are you?" he said. From what he had seen he had spent the vast majority of his time with Sayaka Maizono and there was obviously something between the pair.

"I'm doing okay," he said looking guilty. "Sorry I promised I was going to talk to you but I didn't get around to it."

"It's okay," Minato replied back. "Would you like to tag along and get some dinner? I'll cook."

"Don't you want to," Naegi said gesturing at the couch only for Minato to shake his head.

"I need a relaxing conversation, not an analysis into my psyche Naegi," he said as he got up from his armchair. "How do you feel about beef bowl?"

"That actually sounds pretty good right now?" Makoto said nodding.

The dining room was surprisingly full when they got there and Minato greeted the assembled students with a wave before he headed straight into the kitchen and proceeded to make a massive beef bowl and a smaller one for the Lucky Student. The beef bowl was almost done when he saw another student enter the room behind him and he turned to see Sayaka, The Ultimate Idol. A student that he hadn't had any time to speak to but had also turned up on his list of students who may need to have a relaxing chat. Looking at her, she did seem to be more relaxed than usual, which Minato would probably give credit to the Ultimate Lucky Student for.

"Monokuma's outside," she said with another one of his idol smiles and Minato nodded gratefully before walking outside, leaving the half-made beef bowls.

"I just have to give everybody a motive," Monokuma said gaining outbursts throughout the dining room. "A little PG13 rated video that has just been sitting in the AV room for you to watch."

"Good then we can go watch it right now," the normally quiet Kirigiri said. "But before that I would like to know just what do you want from us."

"What do I want? If you really want to know then all I want is your despair," Monokuma said sinisterly. "Of course there may be something else but what sort of headmaster would I be if I just told you guys straight out. Children these days," he continued as he shook his head. "Figure it out yourself." Those were his last words before he disappeared from the dining room leaving the students alone.

More conversations erupted and Minato found himself drifting off in contemplation of that incredibly esoteric goal. It wasn't until Naegi was nominated that he decided to speak up again.

"Should we examine the motive in the first place," Minato said. "Would it not be a better choice to destroy the video and choose ignorance in that situation?"

"Regardless of what the others choose I am going to watch," Togami said speaking up.

"Despite the risk it may help us uncover the mystery of the school," Kirigiri agreed.

"I withdraw my objection," Minato said. If the two of them were going to watch then it made no sense not to have everybody on an equal playing field.

"I'll just go then," Makoto said and Minato smiled as he saw Sayaka immediately agree to follow him.

"I'll be right behind you two," he said. "I am also curious about what this motive is." He suspected it had something to do with his missing memories and he would not pass up a chance to figure something out regarding that.

It was a semi-awkward trip to the AV room as Sayaka and Makoto were obviously more comfortable with each other than him and so he decided to stay a few steps away from the sweethearts. The AV room was a place that he had only been once when he initially took a tour around the school, but there was one immediately obvious difference to it, namely the fifteen DVD that sat in the room in front of the DVD players. As if by unspoken agreement the trio split up, each seeking their own DVDs and Minato took a glance at the pair before inserting his own DVD and putting on his headphones.

As soon as he inserted the DVD a Monokuma style loading screen popped up and was replaced a few seconds later by a black screen. That screen faded and Minato gasped as he saw himself standing side by side with Monokuma himself. The place that they were in was a factory that spewed out dozens upon dozens of the robotic bear.

"Take a good look at that," the bear said gesturing as he looked at his other self. "Although in a few weeks you probably won't remember it."

"The memory removal will not last forever," the other Minato said and the current Ultimate Therapist winced at how apathetic his voice sounded.

"It's meant to be permanent you know," Monokuma said. "Don't you dare look down on Japanese workmanship, you bastard."

The other Minato said nothing but in the next second he lashed out with a kick and the Monokuma was torn into pieces.

"Don't try and regain your memories too soon," the other Minato said as he turned around and looked straight at the camera. "If you do then I promise that every one of your friends will swiftly embrace death." He gave a grin that somehow made him look even more detached from the situation. "I suppose I should give you some advice to survive this killing game. I've always found that horror movies are best enjoyed at midnight." Even as he spoke he remained relaxed, never once even taking his hands out of his pockets. He looked back at the factory one last time.

"Trafuri," he spoke that word clearly and Minato watched in disbelief as he disappeared from where he was standing a few seconds before the camera cut out. Then the DVD was ejected from the drive and into Minato's shaking hands.

xxx

"So he was working with the boss all this time right," a man dressed in a suit and with a large bear mask over his head said. "Then why haven't we heard about somebody so great."

"Why would you ever share any part of your plan with trash such as us," another one, a woman dressed in hideous bear mask said as she watched the TV without blinking.

"He must be pretty high-up if Lady Junko spoke to him personally," another man said as he held his semi-automatic with an expression of ecstasy. On the floor next to three were a tied up male and female who watched the whole thing with expressions of terror in their eyes.

"Hey what do you think?" the man with the semi-automatic said as he pointed the gun at the couple watching the terror in their eyes.

"Honestly why would you ask those hopies," the girl said. "Just shoot them and be done with it already."

"No can do," the man replied. "I'm going to convert them just like Lady Junko."

"Do you really think something as worthless as you can do the same as Lady Junko," the first guy said speaking up. "You'll only drive yourself further into despair as you fail," the man continued with a twisted smile.

"Now, now that's quite rude," a fourth voice suddenly spoke up and everybody in the room went rigid. "You should place more faith in your comrade. None of you are entirely without hope."

"Where are you bastard?" the man with the gun said swinging his gun wildly as if that would make the man show himself.

"Ah my apologies," the voice said and the door to the bathroom collapsed. "That wasn't my fault," the white-haired man who stepped out of the bathroom said. "I think the hinges were rusty."

The next second there was an explosion as the semi-automatic detonated sending shrapnel through its wielders head. The man who had appeared so suddenly winced in apparent consternation.

"What the hell are you doing," the girl said as she leapt up from where she was standing and pulled out a knife. In almost perfect unison the other man also pulled out a handgun and pointed it at their interloper.

"Oh I'm just a travelling priest," the white haired man said. "Would you like to hear the words of our Messiah?"

"The only Messiah we need is Lady Junko you piece of shit," the remaining man said.

"That's a pity," the white-haired interloper said as he fixed the pair with his green eyes. "He has some words for you."

A minute later with both of the despairs incapacitated and their captives free Nagito Komaeda sat watching the television with a stern expression.

"So that's what happened," he said looking thoughtful but determined. "What do you think," he spoke to the tall silvery figure next to him. "Is it time for a school reunion, shall we offer those poor students some Salvation?"

**Author note: Finishing this chapter early in the morning, tell me if anything is egregiously fucked.**

**Luckenhaft: I was always going to have to cut one student out. In this AU I'm afraid that Hagakure didn't quite escape his canonical brush with the Mafia.**


	3. Chapter 1-3

"_Don't try and regain your memories too soon," the twisted words were said in an apathetic tone. "If you do then I promise that every one of your friends will swiftly embrace death."_

Minato sat upon his bed wide awake staring at the disc in front of him, with a look of absolute disgust. He was not the type of person to look away from ugliness no matter how hard it was and he found himself unable to deny the situation that he was in. The short video that he had watched had shown him a few very important but disconcerting things. Assuming all of the things that he had seen were true and not fabrications by the mastermind then his part in this whole situation might not be that innocent.

Suppressing his anger and panic, he thought about what he had seen and logically broke down what exactly that video displayed to him.

**He knew Monokuma before the events that stranded them in the school.**

**He was aware that he was going to lose memories beforehand.**

**He was able to destroy one of Monokuma's bodies in a single kick.**

**He may or may not have magic. The image of him teleporting could be clever editing but then again so much of what he encountered in the last week was fantastical he couldn't quite rule it out.**

**If he regained his memories before the determined time then his friends might die. **

He pulled out the disc from his jacket pocket before examining it once again. The last clue that past Minato had given him was obvious and he found himself watching the clock as it slowly ticked its way towards midnight.

"Trafuri," Minato said repeating those words and feeling a vague sense of familiarity as he did so even as there were no effects. "Trafuri."

Suddenly his contemplation was interrupted by a series of knocks upon the door that startled him slightly for a few seconds before he left the comfort of his mattress and headed to the door. He had no expectations about the person behind the door and so he was unsurprised to see Makoto on the opposite side. The shorter student looked slightly frazzled and nervous but there was resoluteness in his eyes that caused Minato to smile tiredly.

"Come in," he said stepping to the side and gesturing to his room. "How are you Naegi?"

"I was just going to ask you the same thing," the Lucky Student said. "I don't think any of us are going to be sleeping well tonight."

"It was distressing," Minato said to himself. "Naegi, I realise this may be intrusive but I would like to inquire about the nature of the video you saw."

"Would you show me your video?" Naegi said after a moment of scrutinizing him. His tone was reluctant and he obviously had no wish to do so.

"I would be very reluctant to do so," Minato replied. "My video doesn't place me in the best light."

"I don't think you are the type of person to do something wicked Arisato," Naegi said. "From what I've seen you've been doing your best to prevent a murder."

"I may have been a very different person before my memory loss though," Minato said, watching as Naegi froze dead in his tracks.

"You've lost your memory?" he asked looking at Minato as if he'd never seen him before.

"I am aware of my talent and my procedural memory has not diminished, but my past before I woke up in the classroom is a blank book," he said. "You probably know more about my past then I do."

"That's… terrible," Makoto said after a moment. "Why would they do that to you?"

"I cannot say for sure but I have a couple of ideas," Minato said. "Give me some time to think on it."

"Don't worry we will get your memories back Arisato," Makoto responded immediately.

"That optimism of yours will either get you killed or get all of us out of here," Minato replied. "Oh and you can call me Minato. I much prefer it to my last name." That was another thing that he had remembered only recently.

"Then please call me Makoto," the Luckster replied immediately. "About the video…" he hesitated as if under personal strain. "I first saw a movie of my parents happy and congratulating me on entering Hope's Peak Academy. It was the same video they sent me before I came here a few days ago. Those videos have to be fake though; if they were real then there would have been a massive uproar."

There was a note of desperation in Makoto's voice and Minato didn't want to break his hope so he kept quiet only nodding reassuringly. Assuming that there were thirteen other similar videos then it would be incredibly difficult for Monokuma to get each and every one of their family or to steal and edit the video clips in the short time here.

**Thou shalt have our Blessing when you create a Persona of the Fool Arcana.  
Your Fool Arcana Social link has reached rank 2.**

"Just keep a calm head Makoto," Minato said. "Oh and thanks. You have given me a lot to think about.

"Any time you want to talk…" Makoto said before leaving the room and leaving Minato alone in silence. Minato sat back down on his bed as guilt ran through him and he wondered if he was responsible for the hell that they were all currently going through.

'Clunk,' a sound caused him to break out and he observed as one of the psychology books on his shelf had fallen down to the ground. 'That was odd,' he thought as he eyed the shelf suspiciously. There was really no reason for any of the books to fall down at this time, he had made no obvious motions nor left them in a precarious position.

"The Archetypes and the Collective Unconsciousness by CG Jung," Minato said picking up a book only for a piece of paper to slide out from the covers and fall face down on the floor. Minato couldn't let something like that go uninvestigated so he set down the book on the table and bent down once again turning over the piece of paper.

"I will accept full responsibility for my actions… Minato Arisato," he read out aloud. There were more words on the page but it was those few that stuck in his mind. Pain suddenly shot through his head and he brought his head to his hands as the agony coursed through him. Long seconds later when the pain had died he lifted his head and beheld the fact that his hands were soaked. Tears fell freely from his eyes for no discernible reason and he hurriedly wiped them with the back of his hands, knowing that he had suffered some great loss but not knowing what it was.

"I will accept responsibility," he said before he wiped out his eyes and sat back down on his bed alternating between reading Carl Jung's book and watching the clock until ten minutes before midnight. It was only when that time had passed that he got up from his bed, checking his DVD and walked carefully out of his room and to the AV room. His senses were at full alert and his movement was slow and quiet as he headed towards his target. He was glad to see that the AV room was not locked at night and so he easily walked inside and closed the door behind him before he inserted the disc and put on the headphones while keeping an eye on the door.

Immediately that same scene started up and Minato scrutinized it as the video looped and the time ticked down to the midnight hour. There was no clock in the AV room but there was no way that he miss the time as suddenly the DVD player burst into static and he watched wide-eyed as the room took on a greenish hue. Stumbling backwards he found that his feet were suddenly soaked in what looked like blood and the air somehow felt heavier.

The static ended and Minato looked back at the screen to see two yellow eyes, staring out from the blackness scrutinizing him as if staring deep into his soul. After a moment the eyes disappeared and the blackness receded and was replaced by an image of Minato sitting down in a very familiar armchair, the same armchair that now lay in his room. His face was calm yet expressionless giving off a very cold impression.

"Would you believe me if I told you there were more than twenty four hours in a day," he said before his lips curled inward in an expression of disgust and current Minato watched as he stood up from the armchair and strode towards the camera. "Welcome to the Dark Hour. This is a special time in which the bear is unable to move about, although unfortunately I have to inform you that its handler certainly can." He paused for a moment before he knelt down and stared directly into the video.

"Do not trust a word the bear or its owner says," he said gravely. "I really shouldn't have to tell you this. It should be obvious to even the slowest of minds that the person who is currently keeping you there would do and say anything in order to manipulate you." He waved his hand flippantly as if he didn't really put much stock in the situation. "Do not be too concerned about that however; both of us have our own agenda and there were certain rules that we have agreed to abide by during this 'contest'." His apathetic tone slightly broke when he spoke of the Killing Game displaying a modicum of contempt at the thought.

"Forge your Social Links," the other Minato said brusquely. "Try to keep them alive if you can. You and I both should know that humans are capable of unthinkable things when placed under stress. Keep their spirits up and do not let them fall into despair. When life is without hope then death becomes their only release." He paused shaking his head. "I've spoken too long and I've edged dangerously close to breaking our agreement, for what the treaty is worth. On the second floor there is a library, in the library is a laptop, and on the laptop is a folder labelled Secrets of the Universe and the password is Elizabeth0503." He stepped back from the screen. "Good luck. I will be being you soon." He said before dissapearing.

With that terrible pun the screen faded into static and Minato watched as the world reverted into its pre-Dark Hour form. A second later the disc was ejected, only this time it had been shattered into hundreds of pieces. There was no way that anything was ever going to be recovered from that mess and Minato didn't even try instead scooping up the pieces and leaving it on the side for Monokuma to clean up.

"I should punish you for breaking school property," said the devil who he had just spoken about.

"Maybe you shouldn't make shoddy DVD's," Minato replied.

"You bastard; that movie was made by a precious accomplice of mine," Monokuma replied.

"I believe the relationship was closer to an ally of convenience," Minato replied scrutinizing the unfashionable robot.

"Is that what the video told you?" Monokuma said suspiciously. "Was there anything else he told you? Possibly something that we agreed on previously would not be broached."

"Do I look like the sort of person who would break a deal?" Minato asked.

"No you did not seem like the sort of person to not give your word easy," Monokuma said and his voice uncharacteristically serious. "But the Minato of a few days ago is not the same as the Minato of today. Tell me which one do you think is the true Minato?" Monokuma asked smugly.

"Both of us, neither of us, does it matter," Minato said brushing off the question. "I'm not going to let any murders happen on my watch."

"Don't be so naïve," Monokuma said with a chuckle. "Although you're correct in saying it has actually been a little bit slow lately. Maybe I should have started with an American school. It would probably only take a day before there were bullet holes all over the walls." There was a cackle of laughter that Minato didn't reciprocate.

"I don't have the required memories to get the joke Monokuma," he said before turning around and heading to the room.

"Where are you going?" Monokuma asked moving to walk besides him.

"I'm heading to bed. I have a big day tomorrow," he said as he approached his room. "Do you need me for anything?" he asked as he looked impassively at the killer bear.

"Don't worry Minato you'll know when I need you," Monokuma said chuckling to himself sinisterly. "Enjoy trying to prevent the inevitable."

Those words laden with meaning were the last he said before the defective plushy skedaddled leaving Minato standing in the doorway of his room alone.

xxx

Makoto Naegi woke up exhausted. The revelations last night had kept him tossing and turning for a very long time. The image of the torn couch and missing family was horrible and there was a constant pit of dread in his stomach as the uncertainty gnawed at him. Still there was no way that Monokuma… he desperately wanted to tell himself. In the recesses of his mind he was aware of the fact that so much over the last few days had been outside the realm of possibility that there was a good chance that the video was true and his family was…

He wrenched his mind from that morbid thought as he got out of bed swiftly performing his morning ablutions. He was eager to see how his self-proclaimed assistant was doing today and by that he meant was that he was incredibly worried as to how she was holding up. He had tried his best to comfort her last night, even offering to help her escape if it proved necessary. Even after that he still got the feeling that she was hiding her stress and worry from him.

Walking out of the room he was met with an empty hallway, apparently he had gotten up before the official morning announcement. Stifling a yawn he headed towards the dining room, ready to get some breakfast before the morning. He made it into the dining room before he stopped to take in the sight before him. He was not the first person awake as evidenced by a table full to the brim with food that lay before him.

"Come in Makoto, sit down," Minato said as he walked in from the kitchen before laying a stack of pancakes down. "It's going to be a big day today."

'Wait what's happening," Makoto replied slightly baffled by the tone.

"Well I sat up last night thinking about the bad news we've recently been on the receiving end of," Minato said as he sat down opposite him and started to dig into a plate of eggs and bacon. "And I realized that what we needed was something to take our mind off and reduce our stress. Can you imagine anything that could do a better job at that than a sports day?"

"Um…" Makoto started as he thought about it. While he could agree that it might reduce stress he was also aware that a few of the Ultimates would likely not agree with the idea. However if it was Minato arranging the Sports Day then he might be able to convince them. The Ultimate Therapist had moments where he acted very forceful and it was very hard to oppose him at this point. For all that Minato seemed to be a genuinely kind and encouraging guy, there were moments when he felt scary to be around. As if he had some form of oppressive aura that caused both Owada and Togami had backed down when confronted by him and even Monokuma to act polite towards him.

"Eat up, the morning announcement is about…" he started before his words were cut off by the morning announcement with Monokuma once more wishing everybody a good morning in that sickening voice of his.

It was only a few moments later that Taka came into the room and paused dead at the sight of the feast in front of him. He looked baffled for a few moments before he opened his mouth and was… spoken to by Minato.

"Taka I'm arranging a sports day today," he said. "Events will include basketball, field and track, volleyball and the like. Do me a favour and inform people about this when they arrive."

"A sports day," Taka said sounding incredulous. "What a great idea to get the blood pumping and students vigorous again."

"I thought it was a pretty good idea also," Minato said smiling. "I hope I was right," he said in a voice barely above a whisper, which Makoto barely heard. "I'm going to try and round up some of the more recalcitrant students. See you guys in a bit." Those were the last words that he said before he walked out of the room leaving Makoto alone with Taka.

"Good morning Makoto," Taka said immediately as Minato left. "I hope you're ready to do your best in the trials ahead of us today."

"Good morning, Taka. I hope so to," he replied immediately. Makoto had never been confident in his athletic ability and there was no way that he could ever compete against some of the students Like Hina or Ogami. "Did we have any gym clothes?"

"There were some in my closet," Taka replied. "Have you not assessed what lies inside your cupboards yet?"

"I was about to do it today," Makoto only partially lied. "I've been busy lately with all this going on."

"Indeed," Taka said looking sympathetic for a moment before he was back to his usual demeanour. "Still that does not excuse lacking awareness of your options for clothing."

"I should probably go look for it now then," Makoto said as he got up from his chair, only to hover awkwardly as he saw that the next person who entered the room was his self-proclaimed assistant Sayaka Maizono. This was an awkward moment for him as he didn't know how to react after everything that happened yesterday. Then Sayaka smiled at him with a face that showed no worry or stress about the events yesterday and Makoto relaxed feeling the stress in his body fade away.

"Morning Naegi," Sayaka said with a smile.

"Morning Maizono," Makoto replied. "Are you okay?" he said before inwardly wincing at how blunt he sounded.

"I'm fine now," the Ultimate Idol said. "Thank you for your help yesterday." She bowed slightly.

"It was nothing," Makoto said embarrassed that a famous idol was thanking him so sincerely. "Oh, we're apparently having a sports day today. Minato has arranged something."

"He's being a bit forceful," Sayaka said with no malice in her voice. "I don't mind though. Hopefully a sports day is enough to take our minds off… that. Shall we go check out the gym and see what it looks like." She paused and then took a look at the feast before her. "Well after breakfast of course."

She sat down at the table next to him and for the first time in what felt like a long while Makoto smiled.

xxx

"Huff, huff, whew," Makoto said as he took his place on the side watching the finals of the volleyball tournament. He and Leon had worked together as a pretty good time until they got knocked out by the absolute nightmare combination that was Hina and Ogami. Any possible counter they had tried had been crushed by the sheer unrelenting force and it had been a frankly embarrassing score that Togami had announced after a short humiliating defeat.

This current match against them seemed to be in the bag as well. Enoshima had proved herself to be a frankly incredible volleyball player but her partner Taka simply couldn't match either of their opponents. Makoto looked around noting that the vast majority of the students seemed to be engrossed in the game before them.

"Tired out yet," Sayaka said as she sat down next to him next to him. She had paired up with Ludenberg and neither of them had gotten very far, being crushed early on by the combination of Minato and Owada who had then lost against the currently winning team. "I'm actually quite in good shape; I have to be with all the performing I do on stage, but after today I'm honestly wiped.

Makoto agreed with her there. It had been an absolutely exhausting day and one that he wouldn't want to repeat for a while. His muscles ached all over and he could feel fatigue deep inside his bones. He had done his best and joined in each of the events, and…well he came in the middle of the pack of all of the events. The top four spots were pretty blocked up with Ogami, Hina, Minato and Enoshima and they seemed to be the only people besides Owada that managed to make it throughout the day without succumbing to absolute exhaustion.

"But I do feel a bit better," Makoto said, more to himself than anybody around him. The sight of everybody like this, competing against each other, having fun; it made him feel as if they could work it out together.

"I'm also feeling much better," Sayaka replied giving him a doll-like smile as she did so.

"That's good," Minato said as he walked over. "Need any refreshments."

"I'm okay," Makoto said, with Sayaka concurring, as he watched the game come to its foregone conclusion. Junko had put up an amazing fight but she was unable to beat the combination of the Ultimate Swimmer and Martial Artist. "I think that all I need right now is a warm bed.

"That's great," Minato said giving both him and Sayaka the once over before walking over to speak to Kirigiri.

"Maybe we should have an event like this again," Makoto said as he watched Celeste tally up the final scores. "If we…" he was about to say don't manage to get out soon, but he felt that would be an incredibly poor thing to say with Sayaka around. Instead he took a look at the posted scores, noting that he had got eleventh place which was just below Togami and three below Sayaka causing him to wince slightly. Maybe he wasn't as average as he thought considering his score was quite below average.

"Don't worry a lot of the people here are extremely fit," Sayaka said as she read his mind again. "I know that I am actually very fit considering I spend a lot of my day jumping around on a stage and have to practice for hours beforehand, and then I only came ninth here. That is quite a blow to my pride."

"How do you think that I feel," Makoto said looking at his dismal score.

"Hopefully better after some rest," Sayaka said. She paused for a moment wrinkling her nose cutely. "After I take a shower."

"Good luck," Makoto replied internally face palming as he realised how stupid that response was. "I'll go ahead and make something for dinner. Is there anything you want?"

"No I'm honestly too tired right now," Sayaka replied before she walked away, and Makoto found himself smiling at the attitude of his friend.

"You two are getting along well." Minato said as he turned up drinking some form of green smoothie. He had a smile on that implied certain things that caused Makoto to blush.

"What are you talking about," Makoto responded with a voice that was a tad higher than usual.

"Nothing, nothing," Minato replied teasingly. "I will admit I haven't spoken much to Maizono. Is she doing okay?"

"She's fine," Makoto responded somewhat defensively. Even if Minato was the Ultimate Therapist his words were abnormally prying.

"Fair enough," Minato said after a few moments of silence. "I'm sure with you there she will be just fine," he said with a teasing smile. "Well your 'friend' was right about one thing," he said. "I need some rest as well," he said stifling a yawn. "I'm actually tired again."

Makoto wasn't surprised considering the sheer energy that he had shown during the day and so he wished his fellow Ultimate goodbye and watched him leave the gym.

xxx

_Minato walked down an empty street feeling the cold night on his face. Buildings rose up on either side of him, herding him towards an unknown location and the roads were empty of any decorations except for the open coffins that stood upright, displaying their emptiness. The world was tinted green and the icy cold air scorched his lungs whenever he felt like taking a breath. Despite the dreamlike images he felt an acute hyperawareness that made him intimately aware of each and every sign on every door, of every small puddle of blood he strode past and of every shadow that almost seemed to lurk just out of his sight. This unknown city sat devoid of any life and hope and yet he found the atmosphere comfortable._

_A sense of anticipation grew within him as his he continued down the streets towards a destination unknown to him. The destination wasn't unknown for long and he felt like he had simultaneously walking for ages and just begun when a large tower appeared in his vision, like some nightmarish warped hand reaching for the sky. Heading forward towards that hulking monstrosity that he had determined to be his destination his right foot slipped into a puddle that somehow he didn't see and he backtracked swiftly away from the pool._

_Different from the puddles of blood that spattered the desolate landscape, this pool of water rippled erratically from where he stood before it stilled and he stepped forward attempting to gaze at his reflection but when he looked down there was nothing reflected, save the image of the giant green-stained moon hovering above. Almost mechanically, Minato looked upwards at the moon hovering over the town and tower, seemingly blotting out the skies. The impossibly bright moon almost seemed to reach down tonight, as if to embrace the world._

_Shaking off the eerie feeling of familiarity, he headed towards the tower taking in its unusual architecture once more before stepping forward through the gates that opened easily at his touch. The room he entered into was circular, with a walkway leading to a similarly circular platform and its most distinguishing feature were stairs leading to a golden clocklike structure, and despite the weirdness of the room it struck him with a nostalgic sense of familiarity._

_Lined around the room stood fifteen coffins, fourteen of them were closed, while one stood open and empty._

_xxx_

"A body has been discovered. After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the class trial will begin. Everybody gather in the gym for additional information about the class trial."

Monokuma's words roused him from his slumber; alternatively was he awake and he simply didn't comprehend anything until the bear confirmed his feeling. Those words broke through his doubt and denial and he became aware of the fact that last night somebody who existed in the school was no longer alive and it was that smug bears fault, and his own.

For a moment hatred burned inside him and he felt like tearing apart that smug ursine toy and show his master what Death truly was, but he ultimately pulled himself together. He wasn't scared for himself but he had already lost one person and he couldn't stand to lose the others if the warning of the past Minato proved true. He couldn't even find himself hating the bear considering that he himself bore blame for this situation. He got out of bed, changing from his pyjamas in record-breaking time before heading to the gym.

"Where have you…" Togami started as he entered the gym, but for some reason he cut off himself halfway through the sentence. Minato ignored him as he counted the remaining students, taking brief notice that Makoto appeared to be knocked out on the ground and soon enough the missing student became clear.

"Sayaka Maizono," Minato said to himself feeling a pang of intense regret. He unfortunately had not gotten the opportunity to know the idol too well during the past couple days here and now he never would. Makoto would be crushed. Somebody among the fourteen students here had killed her and Minato found that he couldn't, no he wouldn't forgive them. If they had waited, if they had just considered killing and decided against it then in another day the bonds would have strengthened, the possibilities would have opened up and the chance that all of them would have survived would have increased.

Minato was under no illusions that this death would have changed everything. Whatever the results of this 'Class Trial' would be the illusion of normalcy would be stripped away. While the other students had been peripherally aware that they could die, no thanks to Togami, the brutal truth was now far more self-evident and unless Minato thought up something clever then there would almost certainly be more death.

"Ah you're awake," Hina said and Minato looked over to see Makoto's eyes open and him stumbling to get up.

"Get your ass up," Mondo scolded the poor kid.

"It isn't the proper time to sleep Naegi," Taka replied.

"Still it is no surprise considering what happened," Ogami said empathically.

"Gragh…" Makoto said as his face turned white and he started shaking. "That, that wasn't a dream."

"I'm afraid it appears not," Minato said in a voice barely greater than a whisper, wincing internally as Makoto turned towards him with despair in his eyes. More denials stammered from his lips and Minato found himself sympathetic but decided to leave his recovery up to time for the moment. That concluded, Minato decided to scope the rest of the people here, deciding who to ask about the scene behind Maizono's death.

"Puhuhu," the ultimate instigator of the idols death showed up at this point disrupting Minato's thoughts and the therapist turned to glare at the bear. "Besides I didn't kill her," the bear said in response to Naegi's question. "It was one of you precocious children that hunted down the Ultimate Idol and gave her what for."

There were several outraged and shocked reactions to that, to being in the presence of a killer, all understandable reactions for those people who truly didn't realise how dangerous this situation was. 'Well the cat was well and truly out of the bag now,' Minato thought as another pang of rage and guilt filled him.

"If one of us did kill her than that person would graduate, right?" Togami asked his interest in the answer obvious and Minato watched as Monokuma burst out laughing.

"Puhuhu," the bear said. "You kids today with your low work ethic. You think it's that easy to get out. Didn't you hear me talk about class trials dumbass?"

"If you are the blackened that commits the murder, you can't be found out by the other students," Celeste Ludenberg stated as she watched the bear emotionlessly.

"Correct," Monokuma said raising his hands up. "Let me introduce you students to the class trial system," he said sounding joyful at the prospect. "After a few hours a class trial will be held where students will present their evidence and determine the 'blackened' by majority vote. If they guess correctly then the student will be punished and they will be let go, but if they guess wrong then everybody else will be punished."

"And what is this punishment," it was Hifumi and Monokuma seemed all to delighted to elaborate.

"Its execution," the bear said joyfully causing ripples of shock to burst throughout the room. "Electric chair, poison…"

"Enough," Minato replied cutting off Monokuma. "You are saying that if we choose correctly we die and if we don't the culprit does." It was a brutal system ensuring that indirectly and in the best scenario all of them would be responsible for the loss of a life. Monokuma for all that Minato wanted to rip apart the bear was nothing if not creative.

"Hurry up get it over with then," unsurprisingly it was Junko who said that this time. "Give us what you need to give us and get on your way. I don't want to spend any more time here with you." The robot turned her gaze on the Ultimate Fahionista who returned it, not backing down.

"Such defiant students I have," Monokuma sighed after a moment. "Since you're so eager to hunt down and sentence a murderer I will give you this." He pointed towards the podium on which there was a stack of physical files that sat there. "The Monokuma file contains all the latest details on this juicy kill. I watched it from the cameras. It was pretty decent for a first time; I will be following their work eagerly in the future assuming you don't kill them." With that last laugh he disappeared and the fourteen remaining students were left alone with a killer in their midst.

Minato walked over to the stack of files joining a few of the other students. He gratefully took two from Sakura who was handing them out before he walked over to the clearly distraught Makoto, putting one in his limp hands before sitting down and opening up his own.

His whole sports day plan proved worse than useless and his attempts at counselling the other students were not enough to prevent a killing from happening in within a few days of them being locked up. Despite his best efforts nothing had changed. Unfortunately dwelling on past failures was not a luxury that he could have and right now was not time to plan ahead for the future. His only atonement he could do to the dead Ultimate Idol was to catch her killer and the only repentance he could make to the rest of the students was to attempt to prevent their death.

**Authors Notes: Hard chapter. Started writing with a different killer in mind and then for various reasons went back to canon. Sayaka's Arcana was Empress BTW.**

**Luckenhaft: This made me chuckle slightly. My first fanfiction was White Ink (a Fate Stay Night fanficition of almost three hundred thousand words). I'm currently writing another Fate Stay Night fanfiction. I know way too much about that fucking series.**


	4. Chapter 1-4

"Victim: Sayaka Maizono," Minato whispered to himself. "TOD: 1:30 AM. Location: Makoto's room." That particular titbit was enough to get him to lower the file and take a look at the Lucky Student who hadn't even looked at his own copy of the file yet. Finding Sayaka Maizono in Makoto's room was incredibly suspicious and it almost caused him to dismiss Makoto entirely. If he was the killer then he certainly wouldn't leave the body in his own room. That aside Minato just didn't think that Makoto had it in him and if he did then he certainly wouldn't target the Ultimate Idol. If that series of events happened than Minato would have completely read him wrong to a frankly embarrassing extent and Makoto was a criminal mastermind; which was at odds to him leaving the body in his own room.

"Death took place in bathroom," he continued speaking beneath his breath. "COD is a stab wound to the abdomen," Minato said wincing. That was not a particularly swift death. "Right wrist fractured suggests some form of struggle." He took a glance around the room looking swiftly for anybody who might have also incurred injuries but unfortunately it seemed the murderer got off scot free for now.

"Before we start searching for Maizono's killer we need to determine what we're going to do about the crime scene," Kirigiri pointed out pragmatically causing Minato to start from his thoughts.

Byakuya agreed with her logical deduction and Minato watched with slight interest as Owada and Ogami were selected as guards for the crime scene and wardens against the meddling of others and themselves. It was a practical idea and it also helped somewhat to confirm his guess about Kirigiri's actual talent. Still the elephant in the room had to be addressed and it was Celeste who did this, thankfully preventing Minato from having to do it himself. He really didn't want to be the bad guy since the kid was going through so much at this point.

"I was looking through the Monokuma file," she said with that artificial laugh of hers. "And I noticed something very obvious and unusual. Why don't you take a look at where Maizono died? It was in Makoto's dorm."

Silence fell at that announcement and Minato watched as the entire class focused on the unfortunate Lucky Student. This single line from the Ultimate Gambler was enough to make Makoto the number one suspect in the eyes of some of the more naïve students and the Lucky Student scrambled to defend himself.

"Wait," he cried desperately. "You've got it all wrong. I traded rooms with her for one night. I did it because she was scared." That explanation was probably correct, but it told him nothing."

"Afraid of what," he said cutting off Fukawa who was stuttering an accusation. "And why would trading rooms help." His words caused Makoto to turn towards him and there was a budding look of gratitude, probably from the fact that he didn't dismiss his words like some of the other more straightforward students did.

"She said she heard somebody rattling her door," Makoto said. "She was scared and so I traded rooms with her."

"Why would you suggest something like that?" Minato replied his voice sharp as he considered the implications. "If there was somebody actually trying to batter down the door then wouldn't you be in the same position as her if they succeeded. You are hardly the most physically fit individual."

"I don't know…" Makoto said causing Minato to sigh in annoyance. Still it was hardly the time to tell Makoto how he could have better handled the situation, namely calling him over to help. The kid likely felt bad enough as it was and he didn't want to put him through any more right now. Instead he turned around and then left the room.

"Wait where are you going," Makoto shouted after him as he left.

"Proving your innocence," Minato responded immediately as he left the room not even pausing as words appeared before his eyes.

**Thou shalt have our Blessing when you create a Persona of the Fool Arcana.  
Your Fool Arcana Social link has reached rank 3.**

He had barely made it a few steps from the hallway before Ogami caught up with him; the Ultimate Martial Artist immediately matched his stride.

"I'm observing you so that the crime scene is not disturbed," the Ultimate Martial Artist said with no actual accusation in her voice. It was probable that she didn't believe that he would disturb that but she was still obligated to watch him and he didn't mind her giving him more legitimacy.

"Why does Makoto's room have Mazino's plate on it?" Minato asked himself as he looked at it.

"I do not know," Ogami said answering the question. "It does seem as if there is more to this murder than it would originally seem."

"Indeed," Minato said. "There is no damage to the door so it can't have been forced open. Didn't Monokuma say that the locks can't be picked?"

"I believe that is so?" Ogami said not sounding quite sure, leaving Minato to draw his own unhappy conclusions. Stepping inside the room, the first thing that he noticed was that Makato's abode looked like a disaster zone with gouges over the walls, floor and even the bed for some unknown reason. Minato walked forward leaning down and touching the golden sword, noting as he did that the golden dust seemed to rub off on his hands.

"Was this the murder weapon?" Minato mused to himself. As he looked closer he noticed that the sheath was damaged as if cut by something. In addition the weapon wasn't covered in blood and while it was possible that they cleaned it off, Minato found that unlikely as the gold dust covering it would have simultaneously be cleaned off. Instead the coating had been rubbed off around the handle indicating that it was used, although he supposed it could have been used by Makoto.

Standing up Minato gave the room a once over and then turned to the bathroom, whistling as he saw the destruction of the lock. A closer examination indicated that somebody had tried to unscrew the doorknob, for a reason that escaped him. Suddenly struck by an idea Minato walked over to the other side of Makoto's bed, before reaching into his cupboard drawers and pulling out an unopened toolkit.

"Interesting," he said looking for any signs of use, only to find that the container was still sealed. "Very interesting." This single clue eliminated all of the women suspects leaving only Owada, Togami, Kuwata, Taka and Yamada as suspects.

Putting down the toolbox where he left it, he was surprised to see Kirigiri enter the room giving him a guarded look and he pointed at the place where the tool box rested and mouthed 'unopened' before pointing at the bathroom door. That girl was quick and her expression displayed how she quickly grasped the notion and implications.

Minato didn't speak to her yet, allowing her to undertake her own assessment of the scene as he finally walked into the bathroom and into the scene of the Ultimate Idol's last moments. Honestly he was expecting some form of visceral horror to assault him as he gazed upon the dead body only to be unnerved as he was faced with nothing of the sort.

The corpse leant against the room with a knife in its gut, just as the Monokuma file had said. It was obviously taken from the kitchen, but he had remembered seeing a full set during supper. Blood was splattered all over the floor and walls and Makoto stepped forward examining the corpse as he did so. Her left hand was the one that was fractured and he noticed a tiny bit of gold on the wrist indicating that her assailant must have wielded the golden sword, for a while at least while there was none on her own indicating that she hadn't.

Her right finger was covered in blood and it looked like she had tried writing something before she succumbed to her injuries; the numbers behind her read out 11037 but Minato for the life of him couldn't find any meaning in them, instead shelving the bloody digits for later. The timeline of this whole debacle was becoming clear and Minato couldn't help but feel a pang of sorrow for the Lucky Student for the further pains that he would go through when he discovered just who initiated this sordid accident.

"Found anything," Minato said as he exited the room. It appeared that Makoto had joined the bunch of investigators in the room along with Owada who stood with Sakura overlooking the crime scene.

"The floor has been swept clean," Kirigiri said looking at Makoto. "It's interesting to note there is not one hair on the carpets. From either Makoto or the victim"

"Should there be?" Minato asked. He hadn't noticed anything of the sort and he wasn't aware that the carpets should have hair on them.

"It looked like the lint roller had been used," Makoto started. "But I never touched it."

"Then the killer must have," Minato replied. If they felt the need to erase the hair on the carpet then they probably had a unique hair colour although he wouldn't rule out anything at this stage. "Any other thoughts Owada and Ogami."

"I have not noticed anything that hasn't already been pointed out," Ogami replied.

"I had a thought while I was standing here," Owada suddenly spoke up causing Minato to focus on him. "The killer could have already disposed of some of the evidence before anybody got here. They could have tossed some stuff in the trash room." Suddenly Owada seemed to get enraged at a thought. "That bastard," he said. "Anybody who raises a hand to a woman is scum. I'm going to pound his face in."

"Wait a minute," Minato said as he walked up to the Ultimate Biker Leader before grabbing his wrist and placing a finger on his pulse. "Can you repeat what you said?"

"Anybody who raises a hand to a woman is scum. I'm going to pound his face in," Owada repeated both looking and sounding bewildered.

"Very good," Minato said as he pulled away. Owada didn't seem to be lying about that. Not that the biker was at the top of his suspects list at the moment. In fact the likely list of suspects had dwindled down to just two at this point.

Thinking about it seriously now there were two relatively easy methods of disposing of the evidence; namely by either by disposing of it in the general trash or by flushing it down the sink/toilet. Turning on his heel Minato headed back into the bathroom, swiftly taking off the lid off the toilet bowl, finding nothing that could be incriminating before he walked up to the sink and tried the same thing. Unfortunately unlike the toilet, nothing could be seen at a first glance and so he walked back into Makoto's main room, picked up the tool kit before unscrewing the strainer and rummaging around in the sink. Since the water was off at night it meant that the murderer could not have disposed of the lint and associated detritus down there so he swiftly fixed the sink as best as his ability allowed and headed to the communal bathroom, leaving a conversing Kirigiri and a Makoto to continue their investigation.

The male public bathroom was his next bet and here he was swiftly rewarded by a few threads of lint on the rim of one of the sinks. Swiftly repeating his action, he removed the strainer and picked up a few traces of lint but was unable to find any of the alleged hair that should be associated with this particular lint roller. He couldn't reach into the sink more than a few centimetres down due to the narrowness of the drain and so he decided he would have to approach this from a different, more measured perspective.

"What the fucking fuck did you think you were doing, you colossal prick," Monokuma yelled at him as he sifted through the remains of the wreckage that used to be the sink. His act of destruction had yielded a few strands of hair that were dyed crimson, a distinctive colour in this location and one of the people he had already highly suspected.

"Investigating," Minato said feeling slightly melancholy at this point that he had discovered the criminal. Most likely Leon had placed the lint in their last night and washed it down this morning rather than coming into breakfast immediately. He would ask Kirigiri if the Ultimate Baseball Star was late to breakfast. "Would it be possible for you to open another student's room for the purposes of investigation?" he asked his least favourite bear in the world.

"Oh sure that's easy," Monokuma said obligingly. "Wait just one minute. You broke school property again. That's it I've had it. New rule." Minato's E-handbook beeped and he took it out to see a new rule added to the list.

**Students shall not deliberately damage school property.**

"That's pretty generous of me right," Monokuma pointed out, with no signs of calming down. "I even used the term deliberately so that when you clumsy bastards blow up a wall or something by accident I won't execute you."

"How generous," Minato said dryly. "Now about the room thing."

"Yes I will obviously do that," Monokuma said giving him pitying look. "It would be pretty easy for them to get away if they could just hide all of the evidence in their room. Any student in particular you want to check out."

"Kuwata," Minato said briefly as he stared at the bear.

"The door is unlocked," the bear said. "You better hurry though; the inhabitant is currently in the gym."

"Thank you," Minato said heading out of the now damaged bathroom. "By the way I've recently realised that I'm much stronger than I previously thought. What would happen if I tried to break through the steel plates?"

"I welcome you to try," Monokuma said sounding genuinely interested in the possibility. "Just remember that I had a conspirator who was even more invested than I am in you staying here. If you proved to be too much of a problem he left me a little something to take care of your rebellious streak." The bear suddenly tilted his head as if thinking. "In fact I feel a distinct lack of respect for principal lately. Maybe I should show him off. Thank you for the wonderful idea Minato," the bear said with a sickening air of familiarity, only getting a dismissive scoff from the Ultimate Therapist before he left the room.

xxx

"They weren't numbers," Minato groaned to himself in disappointment as he walked down the hallway to the elevator. Contrary to Monokuma's words Leon was in the passageway by the time that he was there. Thankfully a brief moment of distraction and Minato was inside the room with the door soundlessly closed behind him. Apparently he was actually really good at avoiding the eyesight of other people adding more mystery as to just what sort of person he was before he lost his memory.

From then onwards he had swiftly searched the room and found indisputable evidence of Leon's criminality in the form of a few specks of glitter on the side of the doorframes backed up by the opened toolkit containing a slightly chipped screwdriver; both of which he took pictures of with his E-handbook. Getting out was slightly harder due to no eyes outside and so he had waited for that lacklustre announcement by Monokuma that the class trial was underway. After about a minute of the announcement he had left, travelling through the deserted hallways and through the red door that had remained unopened since he arrived there.

"You're late Arisato," Taka said accusingly pointing his finger at the Ultimate Therapist. "We…"

"Calm down Taka," Minato replied back unfazed. "Today, in just a short amount of time somebody is going to die. There is no need to hurry their final moments along. Oh, and call me Minato please." The last words were more of a casual throw out then a real part of the conversation, but Minato figured that if they were going to sentence a man to death together than they might as well be on first name terms.

A dead silence fell over the room as he said that only to be broken by Togami who looked at him imperiously as ever before opening his mouth.

"So you ready know the culprit," he said to Minato.

"We'll see," Minato said non-committedly. His method of investigation was unusual in that he had begun with a lot of judgement based on Maizono's state of mind and then killer possible identity before working backwards from his assumption, looking for evidence that supported his hypothesis. It might be hard to follow or not inspire much confidence if he said that his investigation started because of an intuition no matter the irrefutable evidence he got later.

"Puhuhu," the irritating laugh of the bear broke through his apathy. "You're all finally here. Please board the elevator in front of you which will transport you to the court room where your fate will be decided."

Minato nodded shooting one last look at Makoto who looked nervous but resolute before he headed into the hospital taking his place in the corner of the elevator with the rest of his fellow students trickling in with him. Makoto was the last one and soon as he stepped through those doors they shut closed behind him and the elevator descended slowly and choppily towards the schools basement.

The thing that he saw when he exited the elevator, after almost everybody else was mildly startling to say the least. Red curtains, blue walls and a chequered floor with a circle of stands in the middle of the room. Behind the stands Monokuma sat on a wooden throne overlooking the procedures.

"Okay everybody, find your assigned seats and sit down," the bear said in a teacher like fashion and Minato noted with some annoyance that the space that the victim was meant to be was replaced by an image of her face that had been crossed out.

"It's not a chair," Minato spoke up feeling slight irritation at the bear. "Have you never watched a legal documentary before?"

"Why would I ever watch courtroom dramas," Monokuma spoke up as if genuinely confused. "They only show the dregs of society in courtroom dramas. Everybody knows that in the real high-class cases everything happens outside of the court room; like bribing the judges and assassinating the witnesses or just calling in favours. This should be much more interesting. You precious students should be thanking me that you get to witness such a precious case."

"Thanking you," surprisingly it was Makoto who spoke up at the bear before he quieted down. "Just get on with it already."

"We all know it was you anyway," Fukawa unhelpfully brought up, but her comments went ignored which somehow seemed to get her flustered.

"Just hurry it up along," Junko said and her comments didn't go ignored by Monokuma who huffed in annoyance.

"Alright, alright," he said. "Since you're so eager I guess you didn't need me to remind you of the rules of the class trial."

"Wait, I may need a bit of a refresher," it was Hina who said that embarrassedly as she rubbed the back of her head.

If you are slow enough to have forgotten the rules already then you will obviously be no help in the trial," it was Byakuya who said that as he looked at Hina with his arms crossed and a look of disdain upon his features.

"Don't worry Hina," Sakura spoke up supportively. "Just wait until the end and then vote for the guilty party."

"Got it," Hina spoke up. "Alright go ahead."

"The killer is already one of us right," Makoto said, proving that he hadn't figured out their identity yet.

"He is," Monokuma agreed.

Conversation started up at that and Minato found himself only half-listening. He noticed that Leon still looked outwardly calm, but his careful eyes detected a look of nervousness, fear and regret. Still it was hardly evident considering that more than half the students bore looks of at least two of those emotions. He did tune back in when Celeste pointed out the sixteenth chair, the chair next to him, was empty. While it could be nothing it could also be that the chair indicated that there might be another contestant, Monokuma's denial was a bit too quick to be anything but suspicious, saying that it was just how the room was set up before immediately starting the trial.

The discussion began immediately with Taka asserting that the person killed was Sayaka Maizono, which really as an opening statement really set the tone for the sort of discussion which you don't want to be having. Togami then contributed something of worth by steering the discussion towards the fact that she was found in Makoto's room an uncomfortable yet necessary item that would have to be addressed which Hina expounded on by reminding everybody that the bathroom was her place of death and then Chihiro tossed all his hope away as soon as she said that the killer must have taken her by surprise.

"That's wrong," Makoto said cutting off Minato's own riposte and the Ultimate Therapist turned towards him. While she was mentoring him earlier Kirigiri seemed to have adopted a hands-off position when it came to the trial allowing Makoto to defend himself. 'So be it,' Minato thought. He would then do the same and allow Makoto who had the highest stakes in this trial to discover the truth himself.

"Wait a minute Fujisaki," the lucky student said. "Try and remember the state of my room there was clearly a struggle. There was plenty of evident damage."

"A struggle," Fujisaki said sounding rather appalled at the prospect. "Between who and who."

"Between Sayaka and the killer," Makoto pointed out with admirable patience. While Minato liked the Ultimate Programmer he had asked a lot of dumb questions. From what Minato remembered he wasn't even one of the students who entered the room in the first place. There was obviously no way he could contribute to this conversation. Still if Minato was going to save himself then he wouldn't stand in his way.

"So what was used to kill Maizono," Ogami brought up causing Minato to roll his eyes slightly and he sighed as he watched Taka and Owada magnificently fail to come to the conclusion that any normal person would come up with. This building was not overflowing with knives in the first place; in fact the only knives on this floor were a few in the kitchen.

"No I do think it was a knife," Makoto interrupted the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader. "But it wasn't any knife. I am positive it was a kitchen knife. After the murder we discovered one of the kitchen knives were missing," Makoto continued over the shocked exclamation of the biker.

'It was actually pretty interesting,' Minato thought. He didn't even really examine if a kitchen knife was missing, even though he had worked out the murder weapon was one. The kitchen was such an easily accessible area it would be simple to smuggle out a knife. Although now that he thought back to it, he couldn't quite remember whether a knife was missing at supper or not, but he didn't think so.

"Okay so the murder weapon was a knife," the murderer piped up. "But where does that leave us. I mean we all know Makoto killed her."

It was obvious why he would want to throw accusations at Minato, but to Minato it made him look more suspicious… or it would have if he wasn't absolutely certain of his guilt. It was disheartening to see Fukawa agree with him but Minato wouldn't exactly put any weight in the words of the Ultimate Writing Prodigy. At least Kirigiri stood up for him although she still left the actual deductions up to the Lucky Student.

Minato reached into his pocket and thumbed on his MP3 player letting familiar music reach his ears as he just stood there and observed the various students. When he had first heard the story from Minato he hadn't doubted his words but he had doubted Maizono's mind-set. Her offer of trading rooms was incredibly dubious for how little it had helped. In her place he would have bunked down with Makoto, proprietary be damned at that point if she was actually scared for her life.

That mistrust had coloured his perception of the case and when he noticed that the door was opened without any signs of damage and the nameplates were swapped it was enough for his doubt to grow into a full suspicion. Nervous, scared, erratic were some of the adjectives he had painted the Ultimate Idol with and he had guessed that she had opened the door and traded the nameplates for the same reason; namely to make a kill and then frame Makoto for it. Furthermore If the killer suspected that it was a girl's room it made sense that they would try to break the lock, although personally he wasn't sure why they hadn't tried the door first.

From then onwards it had been a simple matter to eliminate the suspect list. It couldn't be a girl as tools were used on the door which they didn't possess. Of the seven remaining guys, he and Makoto were out for obvious reasons. Taka would never go into a girl's room unsupervised. Togami would scoff at such a transparent ploy. She wouldn't target Owada because he was far more physically fit than her. From then on the only two remaining options were Yamada and Kuwata. Of those two he deemed Kuwata to be the far more likely one as Hifumi, for all his unique charms, displayed several unpalatable tendencies that would have likely prevented the two of them from interacting prior as well as a lack of discretion that may have doomed a secret rendezvous and a professed likeness for 2d art that would have left her doubtful if he would take the bait.

The discovery of the red hairs in the sink, the golden glitter on the doorframe and the used toolkit were just confirmation of his prior suspicions at that point. The fact that his name was literally spelt out at the end by the vengeful idol was just final nail in this failed murder.

Suddenly he felt his shoulder being shaken and he turned to see Chihiro shaking him awake. The Ultimate Programmer looked a bit irritated with him and as he looked around he found out that he wasn't alone in giving him glares.

"What did I miss," he said as he unplugged his headphones.

"Sayaka took the knife Minato," the Lucky Student said, looking disconcerted.

"Seems so," Minato said in acknowledgement.

"Wait you knew," it was Mondo this time who spoke up. "Why didn't you mention it?"

"I didn't know," Minato responded indifferently. "But it does make sense if you have the right context. Tell me Makoto; why do you think Maizono took the knife."

"To defend herself," the lucky student asserted. "That was the reason she took the golden sword as well."

"So that was hers as well," Minato mused idly to himself quietly and he was about to leave it at that when another person spoke up.

"She wanted to commit a murder," Junko Enoshima said plunging the room into silence as almost every student's face simultaneously morphed into looks of shock and disbelief

"Is that so?" it was Togami who spoke up; quickly schooling his face into his standard look of impartiality. "That makes a lot more sense. It would explain how the killer got into the room at least."

"Wait," Makoto said, his voice sounding as if he was struggling to breathe. "Sayaka wouldn't… I don't think Sayaka would."

"I'm sorry Naegi," Junko said and there was clear remorse in her voice as she looked at the student who was supposed to be lucky. "You don't grab a knife for self-defence. If you pull out a weapon like that your goal is to cut your enemy until they stop breathing."

"You seem very familiar with such weapons," Togami said with a doubtful look at the fashionista.

"Fuck off Togami," the Ultimate Fashionista said with genuine anger. "I had to learn this. I grew up in the streets. Not all of us were born with a silver spoon up our ass."

"Why you…" Togami started only to get cut off by Kirigiri.

"Can we please focus," she said before she pulled out her e-handbook and gestured to a note that was written down on a black background.

"Come see me in my room. Check the nameplates to make sure you don't get the wrong room, okay? Sayaka." The note proclaimed this in white and black, providing clear evidence of Maizono's lack of innocence.

"That note must have been addressed to the person who killed her," Togami pointed out, having stopped fuming from his confrontation with Junko.

"But the note told the killer to meet up at her room not Makoto's," Fukawa said and there was a moment's pause before Makoto spoke up surprisingly.

"The room plates were swapped," he said his voice barely above a whisper.

"I believe you and Maizono were the only people who knew you changed rooms Makoto," Minato said and he watched the lucky student who nodded. "And you didn't change the nameplates."

"I didn't change the nameplates," Makoto said his voice louder this time.

"He could be lying," Fukawa spoke up once again. "For all we know Maizono could have let him in the room and he could have killed her."

"Quiet Fukawa," Minato said, rapidly losing his patience with the girl. While he realised that the girl had problems her constant undermining of Makoto did nothing to help the case.

"You're just siding with him because…" the Ultimate Writing Prodigy.

"I said **Be Quiet**," Minato said and the stand in front of him shattered under his grip as noise perished in the room. A momentary spike of anger flared and then disappeared into apathy. "People who haven't actually examined the crime scene shouldn't be so hasty as to pass judgement."

"I'm going to be nice and count that as accidental damage," Monokuma suddenly spoke up. "Don't do it again," he said making a hand gesture that indicated he would be watching.

"I can prove it wasn't me," Makoto said, his voice flat and lifeless. "There was no hair on the floor. The murderer swept it all up. Why would I do that if it was me? My hair is expected to be there."

"True," Taka spoke. "That is however flimsy evidence."

"I have more," Makoto said. "My bathroom door was destroyed by the murderer when he was hunting Maizono. Why would I destroy my own bathroom?"

"Maybe because Sayaka had the key to the bathroom Mr. Naegi," Yamada said pointing at him accusingly.

"Guy's bathrooms don't lock idiot," Junko said. "Makoto was a guy the last time that I checked."

"Are we sure that…" Yamada started before he balked at the extremely unamused looks he was getting from both Minato and Junko.

"So Naegi isn't the killer," Togami said. "We still don't have any clue who the killer is; unless you want to reveal what you know." Those last words were spoken by Byakuya to Minato causing the Ultimate Therapist to frown.

"It's Leon Kuwata," Minato said putting on his headphones as the expected denial came from the red head and he pulled out his E-handbook showing the samples of hair he found in the sink as well as the golden glitter and used toolbox in Leon's room.

"They weren't numbers," Makoto suddenly shouted loud enough that Minato heard him through his headphones and the Therapist fixed his eyes upon the Lucky Student's reading his lips. He nodded approvingly as Makoto basically outlined the meaning of Sayaka's last message.

Subtly he turned off the music as he was regaled by Makoto's trip to the garbage room. Apparently the Lucky Student had found that a blood covered shirt was tossed in, leaving a blood-stained sleeve. The incinerator had then been turned on by use of a worn tennis ball that was used in his sports day. He had then pointed out that this shot would have been easy for a professional baseball player placing the implication once again firmly on Leon preventing the Ultimate Baseball Star any chance of rebuttal. This response was confirmed by Kirigiri who elaborated that it was likely not Yamada, the actual person in charge of garbage, as the evidence would have been fully cleaned up in that case.

From then on Makoto brutally and systematically pointed out how the scene went down, cutting through any attempts by Kuwata at derailing the narrative and driving the killer into the corner. When that was over Leon was reduced to babbling incoherently as the overwhelming amount of evidence against him proved undeniable.

At the end Minato felt sorry for the guy, even as he pulled down the lever to condemn him. Nervousness and denial were written clear upon his face as he babbled reasons for why it wasn't his fault, and to an extent some of the reasons were valid. Maizono had ultimately made the first move and gave him both the opportunity and motivation to kill and while he could have backed down, it was a lot easier said than done in that situation. However his reasons were all meaningless before the facts in this situation. Monokuma wouldn't care ultimately and his execution had become a certainty as soon as all the levers were pulled.

"Puhuhu," Monokuma said interrupting the thoughts of the Ultimate Therapist. "The entertainment sure must be terrifying."

"I don't know that's more Junko's thing than mine," Minato said offhandedly. "Why don't you ask her?" For some reason that shut Monokuma up and then he burst out laughing.

"I used to be in the entertainment industry also you know," he said. "It was some kids show about a cat. I was the cat."

"Fascinating," Minato said subtly turning up the music on his earphones so he wouldn't have to listen to him.

"But seriously don't you find it funny how quickly she succumbed to despair," Monokuma said. "Just a little push and such a nice, popular girl that brought smiles and hope to the masses descended into madness. What do you think Naegi," Monokuma said with a smile that indicated he was truly enjoying himself. "Did the Idol's betrayal leave you in utter despair? Has your erotic love turned to hate."

"This is your fault," Makoto said stepping forward before catching himself suddenly. "All of this. What you've done. It's unforgivable."

Makoto's words may have been directed at Monokuma but they cut gashes into Minato as feelings of guilt welled up inside him and he struggled to keep an expressionless face. He was just as guilty as Monokuma and for some reason Minato's condemnations struck home in a way that even his own remonstrations didn't quite manage to do so.

"Just going to stand there then," Monokuma said. "Alright since you are being so boring. I am going to get straight to punishment time.

"Punishment," Kuwata said. "But it was self-defence. I was just protecting myself in the heat of the moment."

"How does that work," Ludenberg pointed out, her voice polite yet firm. "When you forced yourself into the bathroom you had numerous chances to give up and yet you persisted. In the end despite your words, you really wanted to commit a murder."

"That's enough," Makoto said. "I won't blame Kuwata. I won't blame Maizono. The one to blame for everything is him," he said pointing at the mastermind. "He's the one we should be fighting against not each other. If it weren't for him nobody would be dead."

Those simple earnest words earned him the focus for nearly everybody in the room and Minato could tell that they had their impact on the students. A mood of rebellion seemed to strike the students and more than one of the Ultimate's seemed to contemplate rebelling against the robot from Makoto's words alone. That hope died when Monokuma smiled, whistled and then **SOMETHING** arrived.

**Crash! **In an instant the entire room shook as something impacted in the middle of the circle causing the ground around it to shatter and the students as one entity to step backwards. Standing well over three metres the thing wore a black trenchcoat with both white gloves and knee high white boots, but the most striking thing about it was the skull shaped helmet that covered its head and the numerous coffins that encircled its back. Lastly in one hand it wielded a simple sword that was just as tall as it was.

"Meet vice-principal Thanatos," Monokuma said. "He's the muscle of the school. I'm afraid I'm just the looks." The bear posed but nobody seemed to call him out on it right now. In fact the general mood of the classroom had gone to hell just as soon as that thing arrived in the room.

"That can't be real," it was Celestia who spoke up first and for once there was no calm smile on her face, but instead a look of absolute dread as she stared eyes wide at the abomination before her. Despite her words, her entire body was trembling at the sight of it.

"Behind me Hina," Sakura said, battling to get each word out as sweat dripped down her face. The being outstripped the Ultimate Martial Artist, both in sheer size and the aura that came from it. Her fervent words were ignored by the Ultimate Swimmer who seemed to be frozen in place.

The being's very presence seemed to be an affront to nature itself, a being that couldn't exist in the world. Confronted by this absolute alien presence the best of humanity stayed rooted in place. In fact it looked like Fukawa had passed out standing.

Only Kirigiri and Junko were still standing undisturbed and Minato was privately impressed at their resilience. No wait, he was wrong; Makoto looked okay as well and Minato felt a brief surge of pride for his friend.

"Is there anybody to object to the execution now," the bear said gleefully slapping his hands together. "No. Good. Thanatos sic 'em." His words were said fast, before anybody had a moment to react and Thanatos was even faster. As soon as the command exited the mechanical lips of Monokuma the being was leaping forward grabbing Kuwata without any resistance and smashing through a door in the room that Minato had not noticed before.

There was a beat of silence as students watched the beast drag the Ultimate Baseball Star through the doorway one handed like a doll. However silence wasn't permitted to exist for very long in an area with Monokuma around.

"Come on let's go see the execution," the bear said darting out from his chair like an excitable schoolgirl. In a second he raced through the doorway and Minato found himself following the bear without much of a thought. When he stepped through the door he was confronted by what seemed to be a baseball stadium.

Minato watched as Thanatos stood in the batter box holding up a massive baseball bat that Kuwata was tied to. Standing in the pitcher's mound was Monokuma who stood behind one of those automatic ball shooters; the proper name escaped him for the moment. Like a horror show Minato watched as ball after ball was fired at the creature and the being responded by knocking each one out of the pitch with the body of the Ultimate Baseball Star.

He clung to life longer than expected and it was only after thirty consecutive home runs that Minato noticed the life leave the body of the 'blackened' student. Suddenly the monster turned his head, locking his eyes onto Minato before pointing his bat at him. Minato had barely any time to ponder the meaning behind that as the last ball came thick and fast straight towards him and he barely caught it in his hands a moment before it would have broken his nose. The bloody ball sat in his hand for an instant, taunting him, before he stowed it away in his pocket swiftly.

With a howl of eerie laughter the beast turned away leaping over the fences on the other side of the field before ducking into another room and disappearing from the sight allowing everybody to regain their breath.

"Such a dedicated subordinate I have," Monokuma said. "Truly he was a gift."

"What was that?" Togami spoke up, as he stood there visibly unnerved by the impossibility that had recently disappeared. "It felt like…"

"Puhuhu," Monokuma laughed. "He was a present… from one of the students here."

Minato didn't react to that one, but he was one of the only people who didn't. An aura of suspicion greater than that first day had manifested around the students. He didn't miss the implication that Thanatos was probably the means past Minato used to control the present. That little display before signalled his intention to

"Stop it," Makoto said speaking over the silence. "You keep lying to try and get us to turn on each other and it's not going to work."

"Why not it's already worked once," Monokuma said with a grin. "I suppose if you are so determined that I'm lying than there is no need to give you an interesting fact about that person."

"We'll listen to the clue," Kirigiri spoke up immediately ignoring the somewhat betrayed look Makoto shot her.

"Very well then," Monokuma said pausing for dramatic effect. "The person, who gave me my employee, is immortal."

A stunned silence was overridden by a cacophony of noise and disbelief. Everybody was speaking over one another while Minato contemplated in silence. 'Was he immortal?' How could he know, he hadn't died yet in his memories. 'Was Monokuma messing with him?'

"Rarggh," Monokuma said growling over the noise. "I don't care whether you believe me or not, but the thing you should know is that since I can't execute him; if my immortal friend were to kill somebody he could instantly graduate. It wouldn't be fair otherwise."

"How the hell is that not fair?" Owada growled.

"Because if I couldn't execute him then I would have to execute everybody," Monokuma replied. "And that would just be boring."

"Why are you doing this to an upstanding student figure of the community like myself," Yamada said, drawing no short amount of dubious looks towards him.

"Figure it out," the bear said. "Monokuma is nobody's mother. Don't you know that bears eat their offspring anyway?"

"They don't," Minato said under his breath, but he didn't feel like speaking up. There was listlessness in his body that he could feel now that the excitement of the trial had concluded. It felt a bit like depression, but he didn't think he had depression. For the moment he felt like going to his room and just lying down.

"Hey you did a good job today," Junko said as she walked up to him placing her hand on his shoulder and he felt his apathy wane slightly.

"Thanks," Minato replied. "You also did pretty well." He reached around fumbling for some conversation topic. "So bad childhood," he started only to wince as he realised how much of an asshole he sounded.

"Oh my god," Junko said sounding slightly annoyed. "It's in the past. I got over it. I even have a lot of good memories about it." She shook her head. "Sorry doc, but I don't need to talk about it."

"You don't have to," Minato said, a bit too quickly. "But if you ever do want to talk then I'm here."

"You always have been Minato," Junko said. "Even if it took me a long time to realize it," she said in a voice barely above a whisper. "I would love to have that conversation though."

"I feel the same, Junko," he said before he saw familiar words appear before him.

**Thou shalt have our Blessing when you create a Persona of the Death Arcana.  
You Death Arcana Social Link has reached level 4.**

Smiling back at her he felt the ennui that had recently infected him recede slightly. A moment later Junko pointed to a spot behind him and he turned, watching as Makoto spoke passionately to Kirigiri. Despite the revelations of the trial and all the twists and turns that the Lucky Student had been subjected to, he still found the strength to move on. He noticed Junko smiling next to him and he guessed she was having the same thoughts. Makoto really was an inspiring person.

xxx

Nagito Komaeda sipped from a glass of champagne. While he typically didn't enjoy drinking he felt that it was only appropriate to do so when one found oneself sitting in a private jet.

"I'm sorry how much longer to Japan, Jeff?" he said putting down the glass and addressing the Pilot. An Englishman who he had saved once and had eagerly agreed to fly him to his home island.

"Should be two more hours, sir," he said. "We might have to stop at a smaller airport. Japan is pretty bad as you know, sir?"

"I know," Nagito said thinking about his home country, the one now called the Land of Shadows. "Would you like me…?" His words were cut off by a distinctive ringing on his cell phone. A ringtone that he learned was the favourite song of a very good friend of his.

"I'm sorry Jeff. I have to take this," he said, getting waved off by the pilot.

"Hello Hajime," he said to one of his best friends, the leader of the Future Foundation and the owner of this jet he purloined.

"Fuck you Nagito, you stole my plane," was the first words that were said over the speaker. "I know what you're planning on doing and I'm going to advise against it."

"Both of us have left her alone for too long," Nagito said. "I know why we did it; we were busy fixing up the immediate mistakes, not to mention she has the protection of that Persona."

"Not to mention she was hiding behind Minato Arisato," Hajime said. "A person who, let me remind you, you cannot defeat."

"Are you still scared of Minato, Hajime?" Nagito asked slightly teasingly.

"He tore off my arm in our first meeting, Nagito. We hadn't even exchanged words before he dismembered me," Hajime said dryly.

"It grew back," Nagito replied.

"I am virtually the only person who could make it grow back," Hajime said sounding tired. "I know what you're going to say next. 'That he chose the right target then.' My point is that he is unpredictable and dangerous. If you go there then there is a good chance that you could die."

"I cannot let her spread despair any further," Nagito said, resolve firm in his voice. There was a long sigh over the phone before it clicked the line disconnect tone played.

"I guess we're going to head into the wolf's den," Hajime said as he stepped out from a concealed portion of the plane causing Nagito to do a double take.

"What, why," he stuttered. "You're the famous head of the Future Foundation that holds the world together. You can't just throw your life away."

"And you're the wandering Saint who travels with his blessed companion, healing the good and killing the evil," he said sitting opposite him. "Now let's go fuck up the Ultimate Despair."

**Author Note: Chapter took me far too long. Please tell me if I screwed up.**

**Leon was Magician Social link. Poor Minato. He's not very good at this making friends quickly thing.**


	5. Chapter 1 Interlude

**Interlude**

Mukuro Ikusaba had always been a girl who was in love with war. The first thing that she could ever remember reading was military magazines until she eventually grew up and started writing in those same magazines. She had always envisioned herself dying in the midst of a battlefield. Sometimes it was an unexpected knife, sometimes a hail of bullets and sometimes a single sniper that did the job and she collapsed to the ground her lifeblood draining from her. She had long come to terms with that inevitable fate a trade-off for the enjoyable times she managed to experience in exchange for her time at Fenrir.

Never had she expected to die here in an alley surrounded by the trash of society as a single hand pinned her by her throat to the wall. As blackness encroached on her vision her mind swept back to the cause of the situation that she found herself in.

**Eight hours earlier**

Mukuro sat in the desk behind her sister's contemplating the boy that had smiled at her earlier. It was an unknown sensation for the soldier who had spent her entire life either with her sister, who never smiled when looking at her, or with the soldiers of Fenrir who she generally avoided outside of the combat of the battlefield. This strange feeling filled her with equal parts excitement and trepidation and she had spent a large portion of the student introductions mulling over these new experiences of hers. That was until she heard the voice of the latest student and every hair on her body rose.

"I am Minato Arisato," he said, his voice calm and empty of inflection. "The Ultimate Therapist. If anybody has something they wish to discuss then my door is always open. Remember, a strong and healthy mind is one of the greatest things that one can aspire to." His words were inoffensive even downright friendly, but each syllable caressed Mukuro's danger sense, raising her proverbial hackles. She sent a brief wary glance around the room but none of the other students seemed to be under such an effect. The closest she saw to her own dread was a certain wariness on the Togami heir's face and a look of interest from the Ultimate Martial Artist. As for her own sister…

"Ah, such thick and overwhelming despair," Junko said, her words striking a tone of unease in her sister.

"Um, Junko," she said her voice quiet. "I think that man is really dangerous." While she had no concrete proof, her battlefield instincts that had gotten her through many a conflict subtly warned her to avoid confrontation.

"Well duh," Junko said shooting her a look that made her quiver slightly in her seat. "That's why you are and I are going to meet up with him." Her wide smile sent shivers in her body, different to that of the brown haired boy and Mukuro found her voice stumbling.

"But, Junko," she started stumbling over her words.

"But, what," Junko replied her voice irritated. "Isn't your ugly muscles the only good thing about you. You certainly didn't bring the brains or the beauty into this partnership of ours. It's time to start carrying your own weight, if you truly are the Ultimate Soldier than you shouldn't have any problems dealing with a simple therapist."

"Okay Junko," Mukuro said trying to sound more confident than she really was. Her sister turned away immediately after she got her confirmation leaving Mukuro feel a bit disappointed but resolved. Even so throughout the rest of the introductions and the rest of the day she couldn't get rid of that creeping feeling.

**A minute earlier**

"You wanted to speak to me?" Minato Arisato said to the pair of sisters, his eyes looking at them expressionlessly as he held a single slip of paper. It was a simple message asking him for a meeting in a nearby alleyway. While the whole execution appeared sloppy to Mukuro, her sister was adamant that this would be enough to lure him over, and once again she was proven correct.

"Oh did you enjoy my letter," her sister Junko spoke up stepping forward in a jaunty manner. "You didn't seem to be enjoying yourself so I thought I would try to stir up some happy memories."

"A picture of me surrounded by the dead would not be considered a happy memory," Minato said holding up the expertly drawn image of him surrounded by crushed and mangled bodies with a look of horror in his face. "You presumed I have lost a great amount of people and tried to stir my thoughts towards them and disrupt my mental state. Were you doing it to gain some advantage in this meeting?"

"Wrong, wrong, wrong," Junko said her smile turning almost manic. "You're just wrong about everything. It's actually a bit disappointing," she said as her voice became morose. "I didn't want to disrupt your mental state, I wanted to enhance it. I'm like, so jealous of you right now. I wish I could feel such delicious despair."

"Despair," Minato said affixing her sister with a sharp look. "Tell me what you have to say and then I will leave."

"Easy, easy big guy," Junko said waving her hands excitedly as she stepped closer to Minato who merely crossed his arms in response. "Tell me what do you think of despair?"

"Despair is a lack of endurance," Minato replied almost immediately. "It is when people give up, unable to bear the harshness of life. It is when people stop trying to improve their situation. It is when people choose to embrace death rather than cling to life. It's disgusting." As he spoke a rare flicker of emotion passed over his face.

"But is the emotion disgusting or is it that you despise the weakness of people that failed you?" Junko said to him her smile not even dropping one inch.

"The latter," Minato replied his face not even budging an inch. "Even still I find no benefit in propagating that hateful emotion. By the way," he said, regarding her sister seriously for once. "I am not in despair and while the process is slow, I am recovering."

"Saying its true will not make it so," Junko said provocatively and she watched as Minato stepped forward. "Hey don't infringe on my personal space."

"Tell me what you have to say and then I will leave," Minato replied his voice quiet but commanding and Mukuro stepped up to defend her sister despite the fear she felt.

"How would you like to help me in spreading despair to all the people of the world?" Junko said her arms wide in welcome, a wide smile upon her face.

"I see," Minato said after a brief pause. "I truly didn't want to kill you today, but you just know how to press my buttons." His sentence was unhurried and it was only thanks to that Mukuro was able to intervene in time for as soon as he finished his sentence his hand lashed out impacting with Mukuro's forearms with irresistible force causing her to backpedal to avoid losing her balance, barely missing her sister as she did so. That act of defiance caused the Ultimate Therapist eyes to lock onto her and he ignored Junko stepping past her to head for the Ultimate Soldier directly, Junko for her part stepping backwards to allow for the therapist to head past.

"Kill him would you, Mukuro," her fellow Ultimate Despair said giving her a jaunty wave and a task that was a lot easier said than done. In response Mukuro merely gulped and then focused on her opponent drowning out all extraneous thoughts. She moved forward in a burst of motion drawing out her knife with her left hand in one swift motion while using all her momentum to launch a punch into the stomach of her opponent. The blow didn't connect as her opponent stepped to the side at the last moment simultaneously catching her wrist wielding the knife. That didn't stop her for a second as she immediately planted her feet using her lower centre of gravity to fling him over her hip and onto the ground. Mercifully this worked and the therapist hit the ground briefly before, he let go of her wrist, grabbed her ankle and pulled her off balance and down to the floor below.

She landed gently and lashed out at his head with a kick that should have ended the fight there and then, but once more she was too slow. Minato pushed off the ground with one hand landing easily on his feet with inhuman grace barely turning towards her as he reached down onto the ground of the filthy alley picking up a thin pipe. Mukuro approached more slowly this time switching the knife to her dominant hand. In terms of strength she would not be the winner in the fight, and in speed it seemed that Minato could equal her, to beat him she would have to…

Her thought were cut off as Minato moved aggressively for the first time in the fight and she lost track of him for a microsecond. Instincts that had served her during a lifetime of war caused her to thrust her blade forward at the place where centre mass would be and she felt fear as the knife hit nothing but air for a moment before her wrist exploded into white hot pain and she reflexively dropped the combat knife. That pain was swiftly overtaken by the sensation of a vice grip around her throat and then she was bodily picked up and rammed against the wall causing the back of her skull to impact the brick and for her to see stars. She barely had a moment to breathe as she was lifted away from the wall and slammed down again just as hard causing her shirt to tear against the rough brick surface.

**Now**

"So this is what death feels like," Mukuro wondered to herself as her body struggled almost automatically despite the lack of oxygen in her lungs. Weakness filled her body and she came to the realisation that if she didn't do something then Minato Arisato would be the last face that she would ever see.

Pain and fear of dying fuelled her and she lashed out with a blind kick that thankfully connected with her opponent causing him to stagger backwards and drop her to the stone floor and gasp for air. Her right wrist was almost certainly broken, her throat was bruised, and the pain in her back signalled that she was lucky to still feel her legs, but if she let Minato Arisato recover she would die, and so she dragged herself up before launching herself to her feet and jumping at him.

*Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang,* the sound of six bullets being discharged from a gun sounded at the same time as she felt herself caught in a steel vice. Her arms pinned to her sides as she tried struggling to no avail.

"Oh wow you actually survived that," Junko said as she lowered the gun in her hands and Mukuro found herself collapsing as she was released from the arms of Minato who straightened up and turned to regard Junko. On his back she could see six tears in the fabric of his uniform but beneath them was nothing but unblemished flesh. "So what are you then, a robot, an alien, some sort of mythological creature."

"You are very talkative for somebody who is going to die," Minato said before reaching down and picking up Mukuro's knife. "Is there any particular way that you want your life to end?"

"I want to die against an unbeatable force in a worthless death having ultimately failed at my goals," Junko said suddenly. "Wouldn't that be just the most despairing way for it all to end? I'm feeling all tingly just thinking about it. You know, down there."

"You disgust me," Minato said but there was no heat in his tone.

"Oh do I really," Junko said. "Aren't you trying a little bit hard to be your standard hero white knight? Do you have a horse as well? If not I can lend you my sister. It would probably be the only time she will ever get ridden in her life."

"The cops will no doubt be arriving soon," Minato said striding forward and Mukuro found herself struggling to stand, to defend her sister. "And you have until then to convince me not to end the pair of you."

"Before I do that I just have one question," Junko said smiling. "Just who does my dear little sister remind you of?"

"You would make a good therapist," Minato said pausing before his hand shot out clamping down on Junko's shoulder. "But that still isn't a reason to spare you."

"I can get you what you need," Junko said leaning forward in a motion that could almost be called intimate before she whispered into Minato's ear. It was a good few seconds that they engaged in silent conversation until Minato pulled away.

"I will think about it," he said calmly before he took the empty gun, Mukuro's gun, out of Junko's hand and the Ultimate Soldier watched in amazement as flames covered his hand and the gun turned into molten liquid that instantly hardened and that he discarded against one of the walls of the alley. "I will remain in contact," he said before he turned back to look at Mukuro. "Dia," he said and Mukuro found her body filled with new strength as the pain faded and she felt her body fix itself.

"Trafuri." That word of gibberish was apparently the signal for him to disappear before the eyes of the two sisters.

"What was that Junko," Mukuro said to her sister only to receive a look of scorn that ignited something within her.

"Are there rocks in your head," Junko said. "No offence to any rocks listening on of course. Every day you find some new way of disappointing me. He was obviously a paranormal entity. I didn't even know those things existed before today. Finally something that is slightly not boring."

"How is he going to help our plans then," Mukuro said only to get a dirty look from Junko who just walked away from the Ultimate Soldier. "Wait hold up Junko," Mukuro said trying to catch up with her sister as the sound of police sirens in the distance started to gain in volume.

xxx

"What is that thing," Mukuro said keeping a firm grip on her knife. The thing in question was a black bodied bird-masked creature with one glowing eye, two hands and a tail for a leg. It crawled obediently behind Minato as he and Junko walked up to meet the Ultimate Soldier.

"Oh it was wonderful," Junko said gushing as she held a bowl in her hand with some sort of ball shaped sweet and tried to sidle over to Minato who kept her at arm's length. "Mystical boy over here just put his hand a human's head and then all this came black goo came gushing out. Who knew that sneaky trustee was hiding so much inside of him."

"You will find that is the case of most humans," Minato spoke up unusually. "All humans suppress certain thoughts, darker emotions that with a bit of a push they can be allowed to leak out and take physical form."

"Not me," Junko said. "I wear all my emotions on my sleeve; this is just one hundred percent Junko Enoshima all the time."

"Liar," Minato said but didn't elaborate any further. He stretched out his arm and Mukuro watched as the gooey black creature extended towards his body before being absorbed into it.

"Alright, alright," Junko said laughing. "Now I've just got an invitation to witness first-hand the fruits of the Izuru Kamakura project that almost bankrupted the school. Aren't you excited Minato."

"No," Minato replied standoffishly.

"Still maintaining that cool indifferent attitude," Junko said pouting for a moment before she turned towards the building. "Onwards, and don't ruin this for me Mukuro."

"I won't sister," she said but Junko had already left heading towards the building. It took only a brief few minutes to infiltrate the building and Mukuro turned on her battle state effortlessly dispatching the guards as Junko and Minato casually walked behind her in the areas that she had already cleared.

"Right here," Junko said as she pointed at a thick door kept locked by use of a retinal scanner. "Behind here is Izuru Kamakura the Ultimate Hope; the final product of all of Hope's Peak's research; the best of humanity."

"I've seen the best of humanity Junko," Minato said harshly. "I highly doubt that anything that you could show me would amount to anything like them."

"Just hold onto your ass and witness this," Junko said sticking a toothpick into the bowl and pulling out an eye and holding it up to the scanner causing the lights to go green and the door to slide open. The room was empty containing only a bed on which long-haired man sat staring blankly ahead; apparently this was the eponymous Izuru Kamakura.

"Izuru Kamakura, Izuru Kamakura, Izuru Kamakura," Junko said repeating herself three times apparently in a state of fragile excitement. "See I told you Minato, isn't he amazing."

"Does that even qualify as human," Minato said his voice betraying nothing of his feelings as well.

"Who cares," Junko said brushing off Minato's regard. "Don't you think he looks so badass?"

No answer was forthcoming from the Ultimate Therapist who merely leant back on the wall and continued to observe. Junko shrugged off his reluctance walking closer to Izuru Kamakura and Mukuro felt she had to intervene.

"Umm Junko he looks really dangerous," Mukuro started only for Junko to look back with condescension in her eyes.

"Of course he is," Junko said. "But I suppose stupid, fat, ugly older sisters wouldn't understand. Izuru Kamakura is the hope for the world. He's so dangerously awesome."

Mukuro flushed but focused as Junko stepped towards the dangerous individual. A quick glance back at their magical companion revealed that he was staring at herself giving her a regarding look before he broke away and looked towards Kamakura again.

Mukuro watched alert with one hand on her knife as her older sister walked towards the dangerous individual. She scanned Izuru for any signs of aggression or motion, but came up short. His demeanour reminded her greatly of Minato's when they first met in that alley and she silently hoped that he wouldn't be as hard to deal with. Mukuro watched as Junko made her introduction to the enigmatic boy. She trusted her sister absolutely but sometimes she wished that Junko would let her into the loop a bit more often, this was never more apparent as Junko suddenly pulled out a weapon and attacked the sitting student. A blink was all it took before her sister hit the ground, hard, and lay their unmoving.

There was an instant where time stood still and Mukuro's mind froze before it restarted, buoyed by a flood of white hot rage. "Junko," she screamed pulling out her combat knife before lunging towards the still sitting student. A moment of horror briefly crossed her mind and she realised that Kamakura was too close, and then she felt a pain in her neck before blackness instantly took her.

xxx

"Welcome back," a familiar voice roused Mukuro from the half-stupor that she was in and she darted awake reaching for her knife. The surroundings instantly identified the location of the place she was in. This was a hospital and she was in a hospital bed. She looked sideways to the source of the voice before she blinked and had to rub her eyes in disbelief. There sitting in a chair in the corner of the room was Minato Arisato regarding an arm covered in a familiar black suit.

"Is that," she said looking at the arm.

"I bestowed upon him a few words and a few wounds," Minato said contemplating the arm. "I think I quite like that Fool."

"What?" Mukuro said in disbelief, both from the fact that Minato actually managed to subdue that human monster or the fact that he like the person whose arm he ripped off was somebody he liked. She shook her head focusing on the most important thing at the moment. "Where is Junko?" she asked. "Why aren't you with her?"

"Another room," Minato said. "And maybe you haven't noticed but I do not like Junko."

"Ah," Mukuro said in response to that blunt reply. "And you don't mind me?"

"I do not," Minato said. "When Junko awakes tell her I will accept her deal." Those words were apparently his parting words as he got up from the chair burning the arm he held to ashes.

"Wait," Mukuro said and Minato halted. "That power you have. Is there any way for me to get something like that as well?"

"What use will you put it to?" Minato asked staring at her blankly.

"To protect Junko from people like Kamakura… _and you_," the last two words were unspoken and Minato stared at her for a few seconds before he reached up to his face. In an instant the impression of torn flesh and blood ran through Mukuro's mind and then Minato's face was back to normal and in his hand he held a feathery crystalline thing.

"Catch," he said throwing it at Mukuro. "If you keep it on you and you have potential you will awaken eventually." Those were the last words he said before he turned around and left the room.

xxx

"I suppose I should congratulate you," Minato said as he stared at the dead bodies lying on the floor far below. "You do a rather good job of oppressing the weak."

"Minato, I didn't think that you would have the guts to show yourself after you betrayed me," Junko said pulling out another one of Mukuro's limited supply of guns and pointing it at the Ultimate Therapists head. Mukuro immediately sprang to attention but Minato didn't move even as he had a weapon pointed at him. If Minato decided to attack then she would have no chance of survival, but she would be damned if she died without fighting.

"I cannot recall having betrayed you," Minato said. "And I remember everything. In fact I still remember too much." Those words were said in his normal tone of voice but there was a threatening undercurrent.

"I know you have something to do with Kamakura leaving and Komaeda escaping," Junko said belligerently and Mukuro drew in a breath.

"Izuru has left?" Minato said and there was a slight tone of interest in his voice. "I did make a wager with him but it is of no concern of yours. As for Nagito, I just introduced him to a servant of mine that I had no use for currently."

"Alright then that makes perfect sense," Junko said before she unloaded the gun at Minato who easily dodged the bullets before he stepped forward and grabbed the gun from her hand before tapping Junko on the head lightly causing her knees to almost buckle.

"Meanie," Junko said sticking out her tongue as Minato tossed back the gun to Mukuro. "Alright I want you to fulfil the first part of our deal right now," she said gesturing to the bodies of the dead students.

"Very well," Minato said. "It's done," he gestured offhandedly towards the grounds below and Mukuro watched in amazement as the bodies collectively collapsed on each other turning to goo and forming into those black shadowy monsters. "I'll meet you inside the Old Building. Do not forget your part of the deal. Trafuri."

xxx

"Hello Mukuro, are you my nurse?" Minato said as the Ultimate Soldier walked into the room upon which the surgery was taking place.

"Junko is just taking care of the other students," Mukuro said trying to keep a blank face.

"Saving me for last," Minato said. "That woman can get on my nerves like nobody else. Still feeling anything is better than feeling nothing; that is the one thing that both of us can agree with."

"I understand," Mukuro said although she didn't really.

"No you don't," Minato said. "That is what separates you from your sister and I. You should feel happy about that. Being human is nothing to be ashamed of."

"I do understand Junko," Mukuro replied somewhat heatedly.

"No you do not," Minato said firmly. "And you should be very grateful that you don't. Do you know that one of the conditions of the deal that I made with Junko is that I kill her?"

"What," Mukuro said stumbling backwards shocked. For a moment she considered attacking Minato but then she shrugged it off. It was very unlikely that she could kill him and she would be going against her sister if she tried to do so.

"Tell me what Persona have you awoken," Minato commanded and when Mukuro remained silent he merely sighed. "It was Palladion wasn't it? That is a Persona that I can never forget the feeling of." His emotionless façade broke and for a moment Mukuro could see true grief upon his face.

"What happened to them," Mukuro started and then winced at her blunt statement. As a soldier accustomed to death she already realised what the answer was before she heard it.

"There is a reason I am allowing your sister to cut into my skull Mukuro. How is your relationship with Makoto by the way?" Minato asked suddenly causing Mukuro to look away in embarassment. "Still like that huh," he said awkwardly. "I hope you will survive," he confessed.

"I want to survive as well," Mukuro replied and she stepped back as Minato for the first time that she had met him gave her a genuine smile.

"If your sister is successful than I should lose all my memories," Minato said. "I should be different. I don't even know what I will be like. Please try to befriend the other me and maybe we'll find a way that benefits both of us."

"Can we save Ju…?" Mukuro spoke the name of her sister and then hesitated. "To even contemplate saving her sister was an utter betrayal and yet she loved her sister and had no desire for her to die.

"And the real brains behind this whole fricking business enters the building," Junko said joyfully as she strolled in. "She reached out picking up one of the nearby pieces of paper. I'm so sorry," she said as she looked at the paper. "I'm afraid your condition is terminal. Yup, little sis you are terminally ugly."

Mukuro smiled weakly, which was something that her sister immediately picked up on and she turned to Minato in response.

"Are you trying to corrupt my rebellious sister," she asked looking at him suspiciously.

"I was just teasing her about her crush on Makoto," Minato said flatly.

"Oh that is too funny," Junko said with a chuckle. "I've told her time and time again to just hunt him down and fuck but she's just too shy to take the initiative. Actually I've got him strapped down; if you want me to give you ten… five minutes I can leave you alone. It would be a shame if he died first and you didn't get a taste of that sausage."

Mukuro found her cheeks go red and she stammered trying to find a way to respond but she thankfully didn't have to as Minato interrupted her sister.

"Stop with the stalling and start cutting," he said blankly. "The sooner I can forget your face Junko the happier I will be."

"Don't be like that sweetheart," Junko said turning to Mukuro. "I don't need you anymore and your face is ruining the atmosphere of the room. Come back and meet me again in ten… twenty minutes and then you can get to doing the heavy lifting.

"Okay Junko," Mukuro said taking one last look at the Ultimate Therapist who looked incredibly relaxed strapped down into the chair. He gave her a nod before looking to her sister who was advancing on him drawing out a scalpel from who knows where and she decided to obey her sister and make herself scarce.

**Author Note: Mukuro POV interlude prior to the killing game. Please feel free to direct criticism here, there is something wrong with this chapter I cannot put my finger on.**


	6. Chapter 2-1

"_Makarakarn," he said seeing the red sphere of destruction halt for a fraction of a second before it burst through his fragile defence like a knife through a soap bubble. In an instant he felt his flesh melt like wax and his organs start to cook under the power of that oppressive energy. That instant dragged on for an agonizingly long second until the endless wave of energy dispersed and Minato felt the power of the _ sew him back together._

_He staggered to his feet having fallen sometime during his destruction and he glared up at the unfeeling_ watching as the many _ uncaringly spun together another orb of destruction._

"_Mind Charge, Black Viper," he said feeling his _ respond to him, filling his body with energy before he focused the energy into a beam of annihilation that eagerly blasted out of his hands aiming towards the approaching death ball. The two attacks met in the middle in an explosion of light and heat before _ attack ate his and continued downwards tearing into his body once again._

"_Ha, ha, ha," he panted with the power of somebody who had nothing left to give before he stumbled to his feet again. The same persistent idea burned in his head, but certain victory at the cost of _ was not something that he was willing to accept. Neither would he fall here and let down those he loved. Bitterly he stuck to his original plan and forced himself to remain conscious as he saw two massive globes of crimson spun into existence by countless _._

Minato jolted awake as if struck by lightning and the pain in his body wasn't any lesser than millions of volts coursing through his body. His mouth felt dry and there was a wetness running down his cheeks. He stumbled out of bed and the vague pounding in his head increased in tempo as he stumbled to the nearest mirror. He looked like hell and there were trails of blood leaking from his nose, eyes and ears; a sign of high blood pressure at best or cerebral haemorrhaging at worst. He had forced himself to fall asleep the prior night, despite being wide awake as the restrictions on his mind were the weakest at that time and now he was paying the price for his slivers of recovered memory.

He took a shower, washing the still-wet blood from his face and changed into another copy of his standard outfit before he headed to breakfast. According to the clock on the wall it was only a few minutes past the morning announcement and thus he was unsurprised to walk into a dining room full of harried faces.

"Good, you are here," Ludenberg said, her mask fully intact unlike those of the other students. "We were just discussing the events of yesterday."

"What need is there to discuss anything," Togami said. "The baseball player took an opportunity and failed and he was killed by the robot and that… thing."

"So are we just going to sit here ignoring that thing?" Owada pointed out with gritted teeth.

"Well what do you want to do?" Junko piped up. "I'm sure as hell not getting on that things bad side."

"I would rather avoid that confrontation also," it was Ogami who spoke up causing the room to go quiet. "None of the movements were human-like and there was no robotic stiffness in its movements. I am not sure what it is but it could kill me." Those last words were said with a

The group remained silent for a while after that. If even Ogami's unparalleled strength fell short of the monster than it was certain that none of them could do anything against it.

"Nothing has changed," Ishimaru spoke up. "As long as we keep calm and pay proper attention to the rules we will be fine."

"You say that but then the bear will almost certainly throw in additional motive and somebody among us will take the bait," Togami pointed out with his typical cold logic. "We already know that a little bit of pressure will cause an idol to snap. Who is to say that next it won't be a swimmer, a martial artist, a biker or a pervert." The last words were directed towards Yamada as a look of distaste covered his face.

"I agree," Minato said earning a betrayed look from Ishimaru. "We have firmly entered Lord of the Flies territory.

"An apt description," Togami responded with Toko nodding firmly in agreement. "So what plan do you have to prevent any deaths this time?"

Minato raised an eyebrow at Togami's confrontational tone but he couldn't dispute the point. He had after all spent a while last night debating methods to put in place to prevent another murder and the solution he came up with should be, while not elegant, certainly effective.

"We arrange ourselves into groups of three," Minato said. "That means that at any point any of us would be watched by at least two people cutting down the possible opportunities to murder."

"A very valid idea," Ishimaru stated nodding approvingly.

"There are thirteen of us though," Aoi pointed out.

"A team of four would not weaken the overall idea overmuch," Minato said.

"There is no need for that," Togami said chuckling to himself as he took a sip from the cup of tea in front of him. "While it is a valid suggestion I will not be participating."

"Wait, why not," Ishimaru stated looking surprised at the rejection.

"So foolish," Togami said condescendingly. "None of you have even realised the other purpose of his sports festival. At the end of that event of his he was aware just how many of us he could kill."

"That's not true…" Ishimaru started.

"It's true," Minato admitted causing shocked and bewildering looks to focus on him. "Besides building camaraderie and releasing tension one of my purposes was to determine who the weaker students and stronger students were so that I could decrease the situations which they could exert that strength to commit a murder. Yes, as a side effect I am aware that I am one of the stronger students here and could likely easily kill all but two people here."

"And yet a murder still happened despite your plan," Togami pointed out. "It might have even given Maizono the confidence to go through with that."

"I don't believe that," Minato said. If she had properly used the data then she wouldn't have chosen Leon who was a good deal fitter than her. Maizono's actions were based solely on her stress.

"I don't either," Togami admitted. "But none of your actions fill me with confidence. If you look at everybody's actions you are the most suspicious here."

"Oh," Minato said shooting Togami a look. "And how am I the most suspicious one?"

"Figure it out yourself," Togami said standing up from his position. "That's one of the things you seem to be good at."

"I will also not participate," Kirigiri said getting up as well and Minato was able to detect the slight hint of apology beneath her impenetrable visage.

Suddenly a new student entered the room causing everybody to fall silent. It had apparently escaped Minato that the Ultimate Lucky Student hadn't shown up for today and instantly he lost interest in his debate with Togami. The Lucky Student looked awful; his temperament even seemed to be worse than yesterday. It made sense in a morbid way, yesterday he was full of determination and unwillingness to let the mastermind win whereas today he was confronted by the fact that his friend was gone and would never come back.

"Hey, are you okay?" Hina piped up and Minato winced inwardly.

"There you are," Ishimaru said. "I was just going to drag you back."

"Come on Makoto," Minato said ignoring the peanut gallery. "Let's talk for a bit." As he spoke he left his seat taking the Lucky Student by the shoulder and leaving the room. The two of them exited the full dining room and there was a moment of silence before Makoto spoke up.

"Her body is gone," he said as he walked next to Minato.

"You feel that you lack closure," Minato said. "That isn't uncommon in these circumstances."

"Have you ever lost anybody?" Makoto asked before he raised his hands and verbally backtracked. "Wait I'm sorry. I forgot for a moment you can't remember anything."

"I think I did," Minato replied regardless. "I'm sorry if I can't give you details but I feel as if I lost a great many." Phantom pangs shot through his chest and he allowed a bitter smile to show on his face. "Maybe losing my memories was actually a blessing in disguise."

"No, that's wrong," Makoto said and then immediately covered his mouth as if embarrassed by his outburst. "You can't be like that Minato," his words were backed up by admiration in his eyes that startled the Ultimate Therapist. "Even if they are gone, it doesn't mean that the good that they created was also gone. Yes, I'm upset that Sayaka tried to kill Kuwata. It still hurts that she also might have intended to frame me." Makoto was clenching his fist and Minato could see the raging emotions that were in no way concealed by the Lucky Student. "But she was also my assistant and the person who helped me when I felt alone and out of my depth. While I hate this place and the killing I will never regret the time I spent with her."

Minato watched as the person who he was quickly coming to regard as a friend shed his meek appearance. Ever since he had known him Minato had placed Makoto as a rather meek, friendly, kind yet passive boy but now he was radiating an inner fire that was honestly blinding to Minato and yet he couldn't look away. A smile rose on Minato's face that was impossible to stifle and he felt strange warmth inside his chest.

Just as he was about to reply to the shorter student the intercom burst to life and a much more unwelcome voice touched his ears.

"Good morning everybody," Monokuma said, his voice relaxed but malevolent. "Come meet me in the gym for a very special meeting."

"Well that's ruined the mood," Makoto said laughing embarrassedly, his previous fervour having faded. "What do you think that he wants us for?"

"I doubt it's another incentive so soon," Minato said. "I'm sorry I have no idea, should we go find out."

xxx

"Hah, hah, hah," Makoto panted out of breath from the exercise that he had just been put through.

"Jeez Makoto have you never done a push up before," Junko said to him, even her makeup was undisturbed from the workout they had just performed.

"You appear to have placed all of your stat points into charisma and neglected your physical stats," Minato said, briefly wondering if he had actually played any video games in his past.

"I'm sorry that I don't have your endurance," Makoto wheezed as he received pitying looks from the two students. When Monokuma had called them it had been for a session of exercise and while many students chose not to get involved both Junko and Minato had decided to join in. Makoto had followed their lead to his current regret.

"Maybe we could ask Ogami to whip together a training schedule if you're interested," Minato pointed out.

"I don't think I will be able to handle that," Makoto said, his face going slightly white at the thought of the Ultimate Martial Artist's schedule.

"Don't be stupid," Junko said. "I'll put together something simple and we'll get you to a decent standard in a few weeks."

"Can you guys pipe down," Monokuma said. "You're ruining my big announcement. Today is a very special day for you students. It's the start of a whole new world. I cannot let my poor students suffer from boredom; you're at the age where your brain requires constant stimulation. Good luck children I'll see you soon."

Those were the last words Monokuma said before he suddenly ducked down behind the podium and disappeared, leaving thirteen baffled students behind.

"Is he talking about a way to get out?" Hina said but Minato had his doubts. Monokuma's goal was to apparently spread despair and anything that enabled them to escape would act contra to that. It would be more likely that he would introduce a new element to undermine the already weakened sense of stability and in this environment there was the perfect opportunity to do so.

"The second floor," he whispered below his breath and Junko gave him a slight nod as he did so, apparently agreeing with her theory. A quick glance indicated that he wasn't the only person who apparently had those thoughts as Togami had that cocky look on his face when he knew something and Kirigiri had already left. Without a second thought Minato also turned on his heel and headed upwards; after all there was something very important on the second floor that awaited him.

As expected the gate that blocked access to the second floor had been disabled, apparently sometime during the exercise and there was now a clear path to the new area that he took, ascending without a second thought. His first impression was that the second floor did not look that different from the first. To his left there was a pair of double doors bearing the word pool, but that would be of greater interest to the Ultimate Swimmer and in front of him he saw another pair of public toilets for some reason. Walking forward there was a large hall with a few chairs to the left, obviously used for rest and relaxation and a door to a classroom on his right as well as another set of stairs on his left that were barred in the same manner as the set below was before today.

None of these were what he was looking for however and instead he headed directly to the door marked library swiftly opening it up and stepping into the rather cool but dusty room. Bookshelves lined the room and a couple of desks with various library paraphernalia sat around the room looking important. One of them in particular caught Minato's eye because on it there rested a laptop which was likely the one that past Minato had mentioned to him.

Still Minato wouldn't casually approach the device considering that he was not alone in the room. Standing in one of the corners was Kyoko Kirigiri inspecting the laptop that he had been looking for.

"Anything," he said, gesturing to the piece of equipment.

"It appears to be broken," Kirigiri said. "I tried pressing the power button earlier, but nothing happened."

"Could it be out of power," Minato inquired and received a shrug in return. It seemed his fellow amnesiac was not good with computers. Still if it was currently off that means that there was less chance than anybody else messing around with it, even if it was unlikely that they would receive his message. While past Minato had failed to say anything he had a feeling that this information could only be accessed at a specific time. Minato walked forward into the library further averting his eyes from the laptop as he did so. The library seemed to contain quite an eclectic mix of subjects and Minato let his eyes roam over the various blend of fiction and non-fiction before his eyes fell on one of his own books.

"The Manifold Folds of an Unfolding Man," Minato murmured to himself feeling slightly embarrassed at the stupid title. It was not among the books that he had at his desk downstairs and he found himself opening the book slightly before opening it up and he found himself gasping in shock.

"What happened," Kirigiri said, springing into motion as soon as he exclaimed her surprise and Minato threw the book towards her and watched as her hands darted forward to grab the object. She immediately flipped over the cover and then she froze, her eyes reading the text on the front cover even as her perfect mask remained.

"Apparently I will donate that brand new book in October," Minato said. "It's good to know that my literary career doesn't suffer from my imprisonment."

"Do you think this could be an error," Kirigiri said and then immediately fell silent as Togami walked into the library followed closely by Fukawa.

"Hiding things," the Affluent Progeny said with a small knowing smile.

"Pretty much," Minato replied instantly. "Aren't you?"

"Heh," the Togami heir said before he walked up to some of the shelves in the library. Fukawa standing a short distance away; apparently there was something going on between the two but it looked one sided from Minato's perspective. Still this was nothing that he cared about right now. From Kirigiri's silence it seemed that she was also unwilling to speak further about this and Minato didn't feel that greatly about it either. Instead he looked at the shelves trying to find any other examples of books with particular good conditions.

"Mr. Arisato, do they have any of my works in here," Yamada spoke up as he entered the room apparently deciding to address him over the other three inhabitants.

"I'm afraid that I have no idea as to what your work is," Minato replied truthfully. His lack of knowledge was genuine; Minato mostly regarded the medium of fanfiction as garbage and not worth reading for the most part, but he was too polite to ever say that out loud.

"It's stupid that you think they would have your trash in here," Fukawa said and Minato tuned out their arguments as he continued to look around the room, coming to a door in the library that he promptly opened up and stepped into another room filled with a large amount of books and files. The dust was thick as he walked up to one and swiped a file before opening it up and perusing the contents. It appeared to relate to a secret trade of weaponry and supplies in aid of some ongoing coup.

"Those are some dangerous documents," Togami said as he walked into the room besides Minato and opened up another of the files. "But I'm sure you can handle yourself. Tell me," he said, his tone conveying the weight of his next sentence. "Have you ever heard of the Dontux massacre?"

"Can't say I have," Minato said. "That name doesn't ring a bell at all."

"You have never heard of Kramer Dontux," Togami said, his words probing as if leading him into a trap. "One of the richest men in the world and head of the Dawn Corporation?"

"Hopefully he lives on in far wealthier memories than mine then," Minato said. Togami was playing him but his lack of memory refused to even allow him to see the angle.

"So you don't remember him," Togami said in dissatisfaction before picking up the file he was reading and passing it to Minato. The file was evidently the one he was discussing as it bore the Dontux name and Minato opened it allowing his eyes to absorb the information contained within.

It was mildly horrifying to see. Broken bodies littered the floor, doors were crushed and walls were reduced to rubble. Whatever had done this had been immensely inhumanly powerful. Blisteringly fast as well considering the whole massacre took under a minute and every single being there was either crushed or sliced in half with a single blow. The real murderer had never been found.

"You think that Thanatos did this?" Minato said. The beast that had executed the Ultimate Baseball star surely possessed the power and speed to pull of something like that. "But then how does this link to me?"

"There is no obvious link," Togami said before he turned and walked out of the room. "But there definitely is a link," he said turning back just before he left the room.

"Is he repaying me for not giving him my evidence," Minato said. It would have been rather petty if that was the reason, but on the other hand this was likely something that he should have known if he retained his memories and maybe the Affluent Progeny was just being tactful. 'No,' Minato thought. There was no way that Byakuya Togami would be tactful. It was more likely he was just sounding out Minato's knowledge of the situation. Minato sighed in annoyance and headed back out to the main body of the library in time to hear the door swing open.

"It's quite dusty in here," Makoto said, waving as he saw Minato. A moment later Junko entered as well, giving the Ultimate Therapist a nod as she did so. "Is that…" Makoto started only to get cut off by Kirigiri.

"The laptop isn't working," Kirigiri said.

"Have you tried charging it," Junko replied looking at the detective sceptically.

"I have not," Kirigiri said with no inflection in her tone. "Do you have access to a charger of any sort?"

"There are chargers in the AV room," Junko replied not backing down. "I can go get some later."

"Have any of you read this letter," Makoto said, his word apparently quieting down the discussion. In one of his hands he held a closed envelope aloft that he unsealed blowing off much of the dust as he did so. Apparently the envelope had gone disguised amongst the copious amounts of dirt that coated this library. He unfolded the letter inside in one motion and begun to read.

"_From the Hope's Peak Executive Office_," he began speaking. "_Throughout the years, we have been committed to shaping the youth who will one day shape the world. We have a long proud history as an institution of higher learning with full government support. Our graduates enter society ready to take on active leadership roles in every major job field. However Hope's Peak Academy must now lower the curtains on its glorious history, for the time being. The decision was not an easy one but serious issues beyond our control have made it necessary. But make no mistake-this is not the end for Hope's Peak Academy. We intend to open our doors as soon as the issues forcing our closure have been resolved. That being said, this is the end for now and I would like to personally and sincerely thank everyone for your help over the years. For now we are awaiting official government authorisation to formally cease operations_. What does that mean?" Makoto said as he placed the envelope down to indicate that he was finished.

"It does sound very interesting," Togami said as he looked thoughtful.

"Very unhelpful however," Minato replied. "A few words about the nature of this serious incident would have helped us quite a lot more."

"Agreed," Kirigiri said and despite her blank expression Minato could tell what she was thinking. "This document looks like it is at least a year old." A quick look was exchanged between her and Minato before they refocused on the conversation again.

"But that would mean that Hope's Peak closed down at least a year ago," Makoto said.

"And the mastermind took over the school to put on this little performance," Togami said clearly thinking about the information that had been presented.

"But that would mean that it was closed when I got here a few days ago," Makoto said. "But it didn't feel like that at all. Wouldn't it have featured in all the newspapers and forums?"

Those were very good points but Minato wouldn't comment on any of them until he had discussed it with Kirigiri. He had his theory at the point and he would have to confirm it with the lavender haired teen as soon as possible. He kept silent as he listened to the speculation between Togami and Makoto, watching as Kirigiri threw in a titbit here and again.

"I'm going to go check out the pool," he said after a few seconds discussion. "How does it look Makoto?"

"It looks pretty good," Makoto said. "Just be careful about entering the girl's change room or you will get shot."

"It is sad that I'm not even surprised anymore," Minato said to himself. "That stupid bear is inoculating me to this sort of thing," he said. "See you in a bit, Makoto." He left at the end of his sentence snatching the copy of his latest book on his way past and slipping it into his pocket. He walked slowly towards the pool and it was barely a few seconds before he heard footsteps behind him and Kirigiri caught up to him.

"Have you considered the date in your book in light of the information we got from the letter," she said to him.

"That we might actually be in the future," Minato replied. "I have no memories whatsoever so I couldn't tell you. You're an adolescent woman. Have you undergone any changes since you woke up this week?"

"Yes," Kirigiri said coughing and looking quite embarrassed; a rare look on the otherwise stoic woman. "I have found myself a bit more developed lately."

"Ah," Minato said awkwardly. "I'm just going to go swimming now. I'll catch you later. Keep your eyes out Kirigiri."

"I always do," she said. "Despite your suspicious behaviour you have been a great help. Goodbye"

**Thou shalt have our Blessing when you create a Persona of the Justice Arcana.  
You Justice Arcana Social Link has reached level 2.**

xxx

Minato relaxed on his armchair flipping through the book that he had received from the library. After his swim, and resulting competition against Hina, he had returned to the dining room below which was quickly becoming the source of all their meetings. There he found out that both the warehouse and the bathhouse were also open but no new information about their captor was contained in either of those rooms. Still Minato resolved to take a look tomorrow for himself and maybe enjoy the bathhouse for himself.

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts and Minato discarded the book on the bed and headed towards the door opening it without a second thought. It was quite unusual for him to see the Ultimate Programmer in front of him. While he had spoken to her initially and had even started compiling a set of notes she hadn't come to speak to him afterwards and he had been distracted by his own problems, an unforgivable sin for a psychologist.

"Come in Ms. Fujisaki," he said stepping back and opening the door wide. "I haven't spoken to you after the tragedy. How are you holding up?" He took a seat on his armchair gesturing to the couch and watched as she complied.

"I'm not doing well," she said and she honestly looked it. Chihiro Fujisaki was not able to conceal her feelings well and Minato saw every bit of tiredness, sadness and regret on her face. "How do you cope with sentencing Leon to die?"

The tone sounded quite harsh and accusatory but Minato didn't take it personally. After all the words said by the Ultimate Programmer was not really directed to him but to herself and laden with such guilt that Minato could almost see into her thoughts.

"I didn't have to Ms. Fujisaki," Minato admitted honestly. "I barely knew Leon and his survival would have come at an unacceptably high cost. Is that really the question that you want to ask me? My coping mechanism and yours will likely be different."

"Then how should I cope," Chihiro Fujisaki said tears forming in her eyes. "I don't want to live if it means killing other people."

"If everyone thought like you we would have a much kinder world," Minato said gently. "You didn't kill him though. Whether you flipped that switch or not was irrelevant. Leon's guilt was unquestionable and none of us would have let him off."

"It doesn't make a difference," the Ultimate Programmer said. "Whether my vote was needed or not I still voted for his death and then he died. Nothing will change that."

"That is true," Minato replied. "But by that logic not voting for him is a vote to kill everybody else. Tell me have you ever heard of the Trolley Problem."

"I have," she said quietly. "You are saying that I have to make a choice and that either way I vote somebody will die."

"Yes," Minato replied. "I am also referring to a variant of that particular thought exercise saying where the goal is to push a man in front of the train to stop it. Resistance to that course of action is rather greater than the standard problem where you simply pull a lever. Can you tell me why that is?"

"It would feel more personal?" she said questioningly. "I would be deliberately ending somebody's life rather than just changing a course." As she said this she looked at Minato's face looking for a hint that she got it right.

"That is not a problem that has been solved conclusively nor is there a right answer," Minato replied. "It's just a thought experiment. First prize would be to solve the problem beforehand. Stop the trolley at the station beforehand; put in more stringent safety procedures; give greater training to drivers; fix up the brakes on the trolley. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"I just need to stop the next murder from happening in the first place," she said.

"It's what I've been trying," Minato replied. "With limited success of course."

"You tried your best," Fujisaki said. "Thank you for talking with me Mr. Arisato."

**Thou shalt have our Blessing when you create a Persona of the Priestess Arcana.  
You have established a new social link.**

"It is literally my job," Minato said musing over the new social link. "You can call me Minato by the way."

"You can call me Chihiro," she said stuttering slightly. "I have to go now. I'm sorry I have some important things to do."

"It has been a pleasure talking to you," Minato said. "Anytime you feel like discussing anything I will be here."

xxx

Later that night after 10PM Minato left to the library to find that the laptop was gone. The following morning Chihiro was missing from breakfast.

**Author Note: No excuses for the lateness.**

**TheSneezingSOAB: Thanks I make a lot of mistakes. How embarrassing. I've corrected it now.**

**TheTrueOverlordBear: The inherent problem with flashbacks. Mukuro actually knows very little overall.**

**Luckenhaft: His reaction would be to GTFO. Actually, his reaction was to GTFO. For the whole situation.**


	7. Chapter 2-2

"Are there fewer people here today," Makoto said his voice slightly worried as he looked at the lower number of attendees in the cafeteria.

"Togami, Fukawa and Fujisaki," Minato replied before he opened his mouth and swallowed another steamed pork bun. "That's really is not good."

"Do you think they could…?" Makoto started and then trailed off. It was an uncomfortable subject to bring up and the Lucky Student clearly had no desire to stir up unnecessary panic.

"Togami and Fukawa will be in the library," Minato said having finished chewing the bun. "He has made no small showing of his contempt for obeying the rules as set up by others. Soon enough he would have established his independence and created an area in which he rules over, even if it only consists of himself. Fukawa followed him for obvious reasons."

"Um, obvious reasons like what," Junko said shooting him a questioning glare and Minato put down his tea with slight bewilderment.

"Did you really not notice that she had a crush on him?" he asked looking at both Makoto and Junko's bewildered faces. "Really," he said picking up his tea again and taking a sip. "I thought it was obvious."

"Not all of us have reading people as our job, you know," Junko said before she smiled wickedly. "I guess Mr. Frigid is going to have a tough time."

"Maybe this is why Japan's birth rate is so low," Minato said picking up another forkful of ramen. "And yes probably. If he can make his intentions clear to Fukawa and deal with it maturely then he might be able to nip it in the bud."

"There's no fucking chance of that happening then," Junko said definitively.

"You guys," Makoto started to say before pausing. "Then what about Fujisaki then?"

That question was something that he had gradually turned to pondering ever since the Ultimate Programmer had not turned up for breakfast as normal. It was unusual for the programmer to miss out on breakfast and it didn't seem to be consistent with his personality to not turn up to those scheduled meets. Minato's mind briefly went over the words that the programmer had said last night and then correlated that with the missing laptop and came to the conclusion that Chihiro had probably taken it. Using her talent there might be something that she could get out of it.

That was worrying on a few levels. At the very least Minato had no desire for Fujisaki to see any of the secrets for him on the laptop. Even worse was the possibility that if she accessed the laptop she could be attacked. Minato had not forgotten the sight of yellow glowing eyes that stared him down when he accessed the information on his DVD. He had no doubt that if it had been anybody but himself, then that thing would have attacked and it was quite unlikely most of the people around him could fend the thing off.

Minato put down his plate before standing up slowly. Apparently Taka had chosen to do the same thing and now they were both standing awkwardly waiting for one of them to speak first. Ultimately Minato decided to break the silence first.

"Togami and Fukawa should be in the library," he said calmly. "I'm going to check on Fujisaki."

"Wait don't you think somebody should go with you," Taka said.

"I'll follow you around," Junko said idly getting up as well. "It seems more interesting than dealing with Mr. I-Have-A-Massive-Log-In-My-Rectum. You're coming too, Makoto," she said not leaving the Lucky Student any room to argue. Minato was already leaving when he heard him mutter something under his breath and then he turned towards his fellow Ultimate.

"Good luck Taka," the Lucky Student said before he got up and followed Minato and Junko out of the room.

"Alright Minato spit it out," Junko said as soon as they existed the dining room. "What's gotten your panties in a bunch? You're acting like you just accidentally eviscerated your neighbour's dog."

"That analogy that almost makes me want to book you in for a session Junko," Minato said looking at the girl strangely.

"You do seem rather out of it today Minato," Makoto said catching up to him and standing on his left. "Did something happen?"

"I met Fujisaki yesterday," Minato said flatly.

"What did he say," Junko said, taken off guard for a moment. "I mean, you can't tell me can you?" she said. "Due to that personal information junk."

"You are right," Minato said. "I cannot, but that doesn't mean I cannot express my concern."

It was at this point that the distance to the Ultimate Programmer's room narrowed to zero and the three stood somewhat awkwardly outside her door. A pause later and Minato hammered thrice on the door, the knocks resounding in the calm of the corridor. However, even when the knocking faded into silence there was no noise from the room.

"She's not in there," Makoto said after a few seconds of waiting around.

"That might not be the case Makoto," Junko said. "You give up way too easily."

"You are implying she could be sleeping…or dead," Minato said, his voice betraying none of the ice forming within his chest. He examined the door as he spoke. "I am not allowed to break this down per the rules that Monokuma set up. He said it couldn't be picked, but how sure are we that this is the case."

"Why are you looking at me while you're saying that," Junko protested feeling the Ultimate Therapist look at her. "Do I look like somebody with a lot of experience in picking locks?"

"Yes," Minato replied instantly.

"Yes," Makoto said a few seconds later.

"Ahh," Junko said and Minato watched her visibly struggle for words. 'It's a fairly complicated lock. I can't pick it," she said before going quiet.

"Are you okay Junko," Makoto spoke up. "You feel a bit different lately." The Lucky Students words were remarkably insightful; Minato had also noticed something different about the Ultimate Fashionista but he had so far refrained from bringing it up. After all this is the ideal situation in which people would display different sides of themselves.

"I'm just going through a few changes right now Makoto," Junko said giving a weak smile. "It's just me re-examining my priorities. There is no need to worry."

"Change, huh," Minato said quietly, noticing that Junko had shot him a knowing look as he did so. It looked like that tarot reading affected the fashionista more than it initially appeared. "Regardless we need to get inside there now; Monokuma could you get over here."

"What do you want," Monokuma said as he popped up. "You little bastards are really getting on my nerves, calling me up at every second of the day. I don't want to hear about your disgusting teenage problems."

"Has it been a long time since you were a teenager Monokuma," Minato replied. "Or is it possible you still are."

"Everybody knows bears don't get to live that long," Monokuma replied with a grin. "Honestly all of my bad habits stem from my impending mortality. I'm just afraid of dying alone and being forgotten"

"You're joking," Makoto said, with rage colouring his normally calm voice. "What kind of excuse is that for killing people?"

"It's a lie Makoto," Minato said. "That bear will say anything he has to in order to make you lose your cool. While it is a good thing that his words make you feel outraged, you will not gain anything by sinking to his level."

"Yeah Makoto," Junko piped up. "You shouldn't listen to a word that lying bear says."

"Oh, lying am I?" Monokuma said his grin growing wider for a moment. "I bet you would like it if you could convince everybody that I'm lying. That poor 'Junko Enoshima' is a harmless innocent fashion model, like she portrays herself to be." A heavy emphasis was placed upon her name but Minato could not quite understand the subtext or the threat. Still if Monokuma wanted to use whatever secret he had to hurt Junko then Minato had to firmly indicate that he was not interested.

"Getting back to the point," Minato said to the bear. "Please open up the door."

"Why should I," Monokuma responded immediately. "I will not be responsible for any deviancy the three will perfo…"

"Is Fujisaki in her room Monokuma," Minato said flatly ignoring the bears waffling. "You have cameras everywhere. I know that you know if she's inside."

"Geez," Monokuma said with exasperation. "I am surrounded by such pushy teenagers. No they aren't okay. "In fact I cannot see them on any of my cameras." Monokuma suddenly started swinging his fists, his tone changing to enraged. Somebody must have killed them and hidden the body. That hooligan performed an act so unsporting and against the tone of this absolutely fair and honest game. Right, just watch what I do now you damned teenagers." Those words heralded the end of the conversation as Monokuma sped off leaving the three standing there in slightly anticipatory confusion. The confusion lasted barely a moment before the intercom blared to life and the sickening voice of Monokuma tolled over the speakers.

"Hmm, hmm," Monokuma said clearing his throat. "Good morning students, you little bastards. Apparently one of you is too good to show his work. Chihiro Fujisaki disappeared and not one of you had the decency to display the body. This kind of low class sloppy work will not be tolerated here. If Fujisaki's body is not found within by tomorrow then I will be forced to execute all of you minus their killer." He stopped for a moment and then resumed speaking. "Oh and if there was no murder and they get recovered alive then that's good also, I suppose, you bunch of underachievers. From now on all of the doors to your room will remain unlocked. Sleep well children," he said with a laugh before the screen shut off.

"Doors open," Junko said as she pushed forward watching as it slid forward without resistance.

"Is there an electronic override that allows Monokuma to get into our rooms regardless of keys," Makoto said picking up one of the scarier issues here.

"Come on Makoto," Junko said. "We were never safe from that psycho in the first place. The other students however…"

"It's the perfect motivation to kill," Minato said. "If they perform a murder before the deadline then they can escape beforehand. Otherwise they will die with the rest of the people in two days."

"That won't…" Makoto started and then stopped himself. "How do we prevent it then," he said looking at Minato and Junko.

"We find Chihiro," Minato said flatly as he stepped into the room. At first glance the Ultimate Programmer's room looked much like his own, but after a brief examination he found that the comfy furniture he used for the therapy was gone as well as the books on the shelves. In fact Fujisaki's room seemed to be devoid of much of the comforts that he had enjoyed. Was it because his talent was more dangerous in possibly connecting to the outside world and subverting the security of the school or was it a perk due to his prior collaboration with Monokuma.

"What are we looking for if Fujisaki isn't there," Junko remarked as she followed him into the room. "What," she said as he looked back at her. "You obviously came in here looking for something other than the Ultimate Programmer. You wouldn't be so insistent if that wasn't the case."

"I want to trust you," Makoto said after a few moments of silence. "No, I do trust you and I want you to trust me in turn and stop hiding so much from me."

"I'm looking for a laptop," Minato said. "Specifically the laptop I'm looking for is the one that was in the library yesterday."

"So you think that Chihiro could have taken it," Makoto said. "Isn't the priority now to find her though?"

"Unless you believe that the laptop is the reason that she was taken," Junko said throwing Minato a sharp look. "Then it would make great sense to look for it."

"I have a strong feeling that it is," Minato said.

"Then we should search the room," Makoto replied. "Fujisaki is the Ultimate Programmer. If anybody could do something with that laptop it would be her."

"Can you search the clothes drawers Junko," Minato said. "I would rather not dig through a girl's clothing."

"Err," Junko said pausing for a moment. "Okay I can do that."

The three of them split up at this point, gently digging through the Ultimate Programmer's room trying to find any indication of where the laptop could be hidden or where the Ultimate Programmer could be. Still as precious minutes went past no evidence for the location of either of them turned up and all too soon the sound of a door being opened broke off their attention from their task.

"What the hell am I hearing about Fujusaki being dead," the first person who came through the door was Owada and he looked visibly angry, or maybe that was his normal expression.

"She is currently missing," Minato said. "As you would have already heard from the announcement. Are you going to help us search?"

"So she isn't here," Owada said. "Where else have you looked?"

"Nowhere so far," Makoto said. "This was the first place. Did you find Togami and Fukawa."

"Fucker was in the library," Owada said. "Fukawa was just watching him creepily."

"Hey you were right," Junko pointed out. "No acting smugly because your predictions were correct now."

"What," Owada said, having none of the context for the situation.

"Nothing," Minato said. "I couldn't find anything, but I hope you will have better luck." He nodded to Owada before leaving the room, noting that Taka, Ogami and Hina had arrived as he left.

"Where are we looking now?" Makoto said catching up to him as he strode down the hallways.

"I'm looking for a person in particular Makoto," the Ultimate Therapist said after a brief talk. "They tend to be a bit skittish from what I can see so I am going to talk to them alone. That is contingent on me finding them of course."

"You're talking about Kirigiri aren't you," Makoto said after a few moments of thought.

"One hundred percent Makoto," Minato said. "I'm going to see if I can borrow her mind to help me with this problem. She is eerily suited to this kind of investigation work."

"I can't deny that," Makoto said. "I'm going to search the rest of the school for Chihiro then."

"I will go with him," Junko said as she caught up to them and Minato nodded at her gratefully. "He would feel a lot happier if Makoto stuck by Junko. The fashionista was not only strong but had that certain air about her that stated that it would be very dangerous to cross her; whereas Makoto was basically a walking target in this killing game.

"Good luck," Minato said before departing in his own directions. Despite the relatively small area of the school it still took over two hours to find the girl. Eventually he managed to catch her leaving Kuwata's former room.

"Greetings Kirigiri," Minato said giving her a wave as he approached. "I need your help."

"For what reason," Kirigiri said. "I assume it has something to do with Fujisaki's appearance."

"It is likely," Minato said. "I noticed that the laptop in the library had disappeared last night."

"You suspect that it has something to do with the Ultimate Programmer," Kirigiri said sounding thoughtful.

"Do you not," Minato replied.

"I noted that it was missing but I had not focused on it for the moment," Kirigiri said. "This must have been on your mind. Did you need the laptop for something?"

"Yes," Minato said flatly. "I suspect that it might have been my laptop. The DVD, that I was given, claimed that I would find out more of my past from that laptop."

"You realise that the bear would never release any information if it wasn't to his advantage," Kirigiri said before thinking for a while. "If the Ultimate Programmer did truly take your laptop then she would likely to use it to try and escape. If that was the case then if she was smart she would not do it in her room. After all Monokuma has a camera in her room. If she was going to do work on the laptop then she would have to go to the one place that has no cameras."

"Is there a place like that?" Minato asked. Honestly he hadn't been paying attention to the cameras in most of the rooms but they seemed to be fairly ubiquitous.

"There is," Kirigiri said beckoning to Minato as she turned around and headed towards the area that lead to the dining room, however instead of turning left to the dining room she now turned right and headed towards the sauna, a room Minato had not entered yet. It was immediately obvious that this was the room that Kirigiri meant considering the obvious lack of cameras and Minato scanned the room looking for any evidence of a laptop, or places that a laptop could be hiding.

While no laptop was immediately obvious there were numerous lockers, each representing a potential hiding place and Minato immediately walked towards them and started opening them up. After a brief moments pause Kirigiri also went to the other end of the room and started opening up lockers.

"If you find the body in the lockers be sure not to disturb the remains," Kirigiri said tonelessly.

"I don't think a body could fit in these lockers," Minato said after a moments pause.

"The volume of a human body could be contained in one of these lockers," Kirigiri said. "And if not one they could divide the body into two."

"Yes, but we would smell it by now then," Minato countered.

"You cannot count out the possibility that they have done something to disguise the smell, no matter how low the possibility," Kirigiri defended.

"I can't think of anything that… hey I found the laptop," Minato said, stopping his conversation as he saw the familiar piece of technology.

"Is it in working order?" Kirigiri asked as she abandoned the opening of the lockers and walked over to the locker that he stood in front of.

"Let me see," Minato said as he hit the power button and was rewarded by the familiar sounds of beeps and fans spinning into action. Kirigiri stood practically shoulder to him as they watched the device slowly kick into action until it stopped on a screen demanding a password.

"Do you know the password," Kirigiri said.

"Just give me a moment," Minato said as he briefly jogged his memory before hitting the keys in such a way that the symbols 'Elizabeth0503' displayed on the screen in gross violation of standard password protection guidelines. A last strike of the enter key and Minato paused.

His head felt like it was splitting in two at the simple sight of the picture in front of him. There sitting on a chair staring nonchalantly at the camera was himself. Besides him in a chair a few centimetres away was a woman in a blue outfit with short cropped pale blond hair and a warm smile upon her face. The room in which they sat had blue diamond shaped tiles behind them. Nothing else of the room could be seen.

Far off and away Kirigiri was speaking something but nothing could be heard as painful joy, sadness, triumph, shame and dozens of other emotions tore through his body and he raised his hand to his face to find wetness upon it. A reprieve from the torrent of feelings came when a single folder popped up at the top left of the screen titled 'Secrets of the Universe'. Minato reached forward hitting the touchpad and sliding it up to double click on the folder.

As soon as he did so there was an explosion of green causing Minato to stumble back and reflexively close his eyes and when he opened it the world had taken on an emerald tinge akin to the last time he received a message. Kirigiri was gone and there was a coffin standing in the place where she used to be, but Minato got the feeling that this state of affairs was correct. That she was safer being in the coffin then outside. His headache faded to an aching pulse as he stepped forward once again watching as the laptop now consisted only of static. Reaching forward he tapped on the screen in slight annoyance only to find his finger sinking into the screen. A second's bewilderment was all he felt before he found himself entirely sucked into the laptop.

xxx

"Still no sign of Fujsaki despite all that," Makoto said as he walked out of the library with Junko beside him. The Ultimate Fashionista was still fuming over the rudeness of Togami as the two had been at each other's throats as soon as they stepped into the library.

"We'll find her don't worry," Junko said reassuringly as she walked next to him. "It would help though if certain pricks actually did their job." As she spoke she gave a glare towards the library where Togami still sat despite everything.

"It's fine," Makoto said. "I'm not worried. With you and Minato both looking for her there is no chance we won't find her. That's not even including everybody else who is searching. I just hope she is okay when we find her."

"I wouldn't worry…" Junko started to say and then stopped. Simultaneously the world took on a greenish tinge and Makoto felt as if a bolt of electricity just shot down his spine causing his limbs to grow numb and his flesh fatigued.

"What just happened," he slurred his word slightly shaking his head to dispel the sudden drowsiness. Through heavy eyes he watched Junko turn towards him, suddenly looking at him with a face filled with utter shock. "Sorry Junko I obviously didn't get enough sleep. I think I'm seeing things.

**Author Note: A short chapter to try and get me back into the swing of things. As per usual comments, criticisms all are welcome.**


	8. Chapter 2-3

Chihiro slipped on the black and white tiled floor causing a jolt of pain to shoot up his leg originating from his knee. A moment later he scrambled to his feet taking gulping down deep breaths of life prolonging air. A single breath in this place caused his lungs to burn as they took in the frigid atmosphere and his skin felt icy, his clothes providing no protection in this coldness that seemed to ignore convection and seep directly into the bones. An omnipresent noise sounded behind him and Chihiro swallowed harshly as he ran forcing himself to keep looking ahead and avoid staring at the monsters in the shadows. He had looked only once and what he saw affected him deeply. Hands and masks and wings and claws formed into shapes that only sometimes resembled a human and other times resembled some form of demon straight from ancient mythology.

His body was already battered and bruised by this point and he could hear that terrible cacophony get noticeable closer with each stumble that he made. Sentences consisting of nothing but gibberish started to form into words almost-heard and despite their waning lack of coherence the Ultimate Programmer could feel barely heard syllables in the shapes of knives stab into him with feelings of regret, apathy and despair. He covered his ears as he sprinted trying to drown out the noises and finding his earholes slick with blood.

Panting and with his muscles on the verge of giving up he turned a corner and froze as the corner was blocked by a large figure. The figure was female in shape with a white mask that circled by six scarlet eyes and a pair of 'wings' extending from its back either side containing six more eyes. It was clad in a velvet evening dress and matching long gloves but her most eye-catching feature was the glass orb that replaced her abdomen and legs and from which the lower half of her dress was pinned. His momentary confusion caused him to stumble slightly and he felt a chill on his back as cruel fingers of ice courtesy of the encroaching shadowy figures started to appear on his back.

His indecision left him paralysed and the choice was taken out of his hand a moment later as the feminine shape suddenly lunged towards him with speed belying its size; reaching him in an instant. He stumbled back closing his eyes instinctively as the feminine figure touched him and he waited for the end. Seconds passed in darkness as he waited but he felt no pain and eventually he screwed up the courage to open his eyes; receiving a shock at the sight before him. He was standing inside the orb of the creature and even the persistent cold touches and painful cacophony was absent.

He slowly turned around and immediately wished he hadn't as the myriad shadows clawed at the glass surface; forming dozens of clawed limbs as they tried to get in, to get him. Suddenly a hand descended into the shadowy mess pulling out one of the squirming shadows. Chihiro almost vomited at the sight of the squirming writhing thing; it seemed wrong in a fundamental way. With a swipe of its hand all the other shadows except for the one held dispersed leaving the corridor.

"Um, thank you for that," Chihiro said, hoping amongst hope that the new arrival was friendly. No answer was forthcoming as the being turned around and moved back to where it came from dragging Chihiro and the chittering shadow in her hands. Large arches stood amongst confusing architecture and Chihiro quickly kept his eyes focused downwards unwilling to look at his surroundings.

After about a quarter hour of movement the female creature stopped dead and Chihiro took the opportunity to look up from the floor and then froze. The room that he found himself in was huge, easily larger than the entirety of Hope's Peak Academy but not one scrap of space was empty. Hundreds if not thousands of humanoid figures stood, sat, reclined or crouched in their own spot on the floor that seemed to warp around them to match their aesthetics. Each of their appearances was as diverse as the other. Somel of them seemed to consist of the same underlying style of almost human aesthetics combined with inhuman characteristics; some of them seemed to be some creatures straight out of myths and legends and some were completely apart of anything he had ever seen before; but right now all of them were watching him.

No they weren't watching him; instead they were all fixed upon the squirming shadow in his protectors arms that had redoubled its efforts to get free. For next few seconds Chihiro watched as it was flung into an unoccupied spot before convulsing rapidly and the black ichor that made it started to melt away. In a span of ten seconds it had coalesced into the friendly form of a smiling snowman that tipped its head towards Chihiro with an apologetic attitude while the ground beneath him froze and other humanoids shuffled themselves around to provide space.

"Excuse me," Chihiro spoke up for the first time since he had arrived here. "Can you tell me why I am here?" Silence was all that greeted him as he spoke and he shivered as more and more eyes turned towards him.

"They can't speak," a childish voice popped up right beside him and Chihiro yelped stumbling backwards and somehow exiting the glass dome. In front of him was a young black-haired child wearing what looked to be a prisoner uniform who was now standing in the glass dome. "None of them can speak. At least none of the persona here can speak." The child shot the glass dome lady a suspicious glance before he turned back towards Chihiro. "All the ones that gained the ability to speak are either out of the tower at the moment or in a different room."

"There are more," Chihiro said gulping harshly as he visualised the enormous mass grow even larger.

"Of course," the young boy said somewhat cheerfully. "You previously met one I believe. Thanatos is a rather violent one but he can speak if he chooses to." He stepped out of the glass dome before he turned back to the feminine figure. "Thank you for that Lucia," he said calmly. "You can return to your place." The persona, Lucia, nodded before she turned around and headed slowly away, but Chihiro wasn't paying attention for the moment.

"Thanatos," Chihiro said and then he turned white in realisation. The massive masked being with a sword could only be one of them. Until now he hadn't made the connection but as he did he felt a cold sweat break down his back. If all of them were as strong as the black figure and if they decided to become violent he didn't know if anybody could stop them.

"Relax don't worry," the young boy said in what could probably pass as a comforting tone if not for the context of the situation. "Only three of them are out in the world at the moment. Of course if you were to run into them…" his voice trailed off leaving only the implications behind and Chihiro realised that for this creepy small child to exist in this place he couldn't be normal.

"Who are you…?" Chihiro started only for the younger boy to hold out his hands to forestall any questions. The boy was staring towards an enormous pair of double doors and he was not alone as every one of the humanoids was following his line of sight. A few seconds passed in silence until the doors were smashed open as a shadowy Rhino Beetle three metres tall charged through the room crashing and whirling around before regaining its footing but it was not the only occupant that was crashing into the room.

Minato stumbled into the room at the same time and Chihiro realised that he must have just dodged the charge of the massive beetle. As scared as Chihiro had been he looked practically pristine compared to Minato. The Ultimate Therapists clothes were torn and blood was oozing from dozens of scratches all over his body where there wasn't bruised flesh. He was limping and his face was even whiter than usual but still he didn't look like he was going to fall any time soon. He eyed down that giant beetle that lowered its head while crouching down and lowering his centre of gravity as if he was going to spring forward in one leap.

In the next second that giant beetle vanished under a concentrated barrage of every single being in the room. Fire, frost, lightning were among the various things that landed on the carapace of the creature reducing it to dust in an instant. Chihiro's watched as Minato's eyes widened at the sight before he gained control of himself and saw Chihiro. He waved a hand at the Ultimate Programmer and slowly started limping towards him.

"Are you okay," Minato said as he came closer holding his shoulder which seemed to be bleeding quite profusely.

"You should worry about yourself Minato," Chihiro said as he finally got off the floor moving towards his new friend. Up close he looked even worse than usual and Chihiro started to fear for his life or at least his future mobility.

"Heal them," the young child commanded and Chihiro suddenly felt all his aches and pains cease and his exhaustion recede. Minato as well seemed to look down at his wounds in amazement. Chihiro watched as he scratched at the blood to reveal undamaged skin beneath it.

"More like Thanatos I assume," Minato said quietly as he looked at the assembled beings. "Just how many are under control of the mastermind."

"Only three are currently out of the tower," the young boy said. "As to whether they are under the control of the mastermind," he said as he shook his head. "It's not my concern."

"How can you be so heartless?" Chihiro asked the young boy. So far he had been relatively polite with Chihiro so it was surprising for the young child to show such callousness. "How many people could just one of those things kill? And if there are two others out there."

"Hundreds, thousands…millions, depending on how long they have to do it," the young child said, his voice flat. "Unless they were willing to put some real work into it their actual death counts will only amount to a slight blip on the world's population. The number decreases even further when you consider the past and future as well as alternate worlds. All life dies Mr. Ultimate Programmer, why do you think you should be so special."

Chihiro's paled as he heard the entity address him as a male and he turned swiftly towards Minato who was giving him an evaluating gaze before he turned towards the young boy again not saying a word. Chihiro nodded gratefully at this; resolving to tell Minato later, even if he would hate him for his deceit.

"You're putting up a good act there," Minato said, his voice slightly cold. "But I can tell that you are not the sort to laugh off other people's tragedies. Can you tell me the real reason that you can't help us?"

"I can't leave this room Mr. Ultimate Psychologist," the young boy said. "I am a mere prisoner turned gatekeeper. There are only two people that can release me from that duty and right now you are not one of them."

"And what is on the other side of the gate," Minato said sceptically. "That it requires an entourage this powerful to safeguard."

"Absolute and total peace," the young boy said, his voice not changing one octave. His words were flat but betrayed an absolute magnanimity that didn't fit his criminal image.

"So behind that gate lies Absolute Death," Minato said cocking his head. "I am not so naïve to believe that humanity and peace can absolutely co-exist together and live in harmony."

"Minato," Chihiro said wondering what to say. The words seemed unusually cynical for the psychologist who normally appeared so kind. "Do you really think that?"

"You're correct in a way," the young boy said sounding quite melancholy for a moment. "Can't you hear all those people crying out for peace? Even before you born the supplication was becoming quite overwhelming but it has really picked up over this last year. I'm no longer sure whether it would be crueller to answer or refuse the prayers."

"That's not a question I'm not qualified to answer," Minato said and Chihiro nodded to show his agreement.

"Then get qualified," the young boy said smiling before he looked sad for a moment. "It seems that the Arcanum of Strength has recently departed the world. You humans aren't doing very well."

"Who is the Arcanum of Strength," Minato said and Chihiro had never heard him sound so serious before.

"Waitm has somebody died?" Chihiro said his voice rising as the significance of the boy in the prisoner suit said. He received a pitying look from the boy who then nodded his head causing a cold weight to settle in the young programmer's stomach. He looked towards Minato whose face seemed to be carved out of granite.

"You guys should return," the boy said. "The bear has already called for a class trial and you two should participate." As he spoke Chihiro felt a warm feeling in his chest and a suction force operate upon his body causing him to rise off the ground. Next to him he saw Minato also rise from the ground, his face displaying no expression.

"Do you know who committed the murder," Minato said looking down at the boy in the striped clothes who nodded but didn't offer any further advice. "But you're not going to tell me?" he continued and received a nod in return. "What is your goal?" His voice had started off emotionless but as he continued to speak tones of frustration and other emotions that Chihiro couldn't identify emerged.

"My goal is as it has always been although the reason that I am doing it has changed some point in the past," the young boy said with a smile that hid a lot of meaning and for a brief moment his image seemed to flicker into the form of an older boy in a yellow scarf before returning back to the form of a young child. "My goal is to watch as human's choose their fate and convey my personal appraisal of their choice. Farewell Ultimate Programmer and farewell Ultimate Therapist."

The world blurred around the two Ultimates and Chihiro felt a horrible feeling of falling down and down and down even as he ascended up and up and up.

xxx

Minato came to consciousness standing on his feet into the room outside the sauna filled with lockers. Next to him Chihiro was just stumbling to her/his feet from his position on the floor. It didn't seem like he had gotten the whole landing thing down pat. The laptop was still in the same position that it had been left in and Minato quickly shut the locker before he walked towards the closest mirror and did a close inspection. His clothes were a bit ruffled and there were no signs of injury but he did look tired. As he stared into the mirror he felt his mind wander and for a brief instant his blue eyes were replaced by large green orbs before he blinked and found his eyes unchanged.

The entire event felt like a swiftly fading dream, the details of which he struggled to recall before they faded out of his mind. He remembered the boy in the prison suit and he remembered fighting for a long, long time. Days or weeks of time stretched out in that place; sometimes he was alone but sometimes others were with him but he couldn't remember any of their faces. There were questions that he asked but not enough and not the most important ones. He felt limited due to the close proximity of his friend and he was never able to ask what the purpose of the laptop was or why he had handed Thanatos over to the Mastermind.

"Let's get you to the rest and hope we haven't missed the deadline," Minato said giving Chihiro a hand to help steady her/him. "By the way how should I address you," he said with some consideration. "As a female or a male?"

"Female please for now," Chihiro said after a moment looking ashamed of herself for a moment. "I planned to announce it soon but…" Her voice trailed off and Minato decided to take over.

"But life happened," he said sympathetically. "What do you remember inside there? Do you remember what the boy said about a murder?" Chihiro's breath hitched which gave Minato all the confirmation that he needed. "There were thirteen alive and if one is murdered then twelve. If you and I were there then it leaves ten murder suspects." Minato already started to analyse possible murder suspects inside his head but he was cut off by Chihiro grabbing onto his arm.

"Please don't say that." the Ultimate Programmer said and Minato realised that she was shaking in fear or distaste. He quickly reviewed his last words before wincing as he took a more balanced view. He had been treating life too casually lately, or maybe ever since he had lost his memories he had been treating life with unusual sacrality. A rather inappropriate twitch of amusement touched his lips as he realised that he might need to see a psychiatrist.

"Let's go and see if we can get a grasp of the situation," Minato said as he gently released himself from the grip of the Ultimate Programmer. Barely had he stepped out of the locker room when he saw into the swiftly moving form of Makoto heading towards the dormitories before he stopped dead staring in disbelief at the reappearance of the Ultimate Therapist.

"Hello Makoto," Minato said with his hand. "What have I missed?"

"Minato," the shorter boy said panting with visible exertion as a look that contained a mixture of panic and relief crossed his face. "Thank goodness you're still here and you're here also Fujisaki. Ogami is dead and they believe that Junko killed her."

"As I suspected," Minato said beneath his breath as Chihiro shuddered next to him. "Who are they?"

"Everybody I think," Makoto said before he started to think. "I know Hina was really upset. She was yelling about how she was going to vote for execution for Junko. Yamada, Ishimaru and Fukawa, Ludenberg and Togami sounded convinced. Owada didn't really comment. Kirigiri said that she wouldn't comment until she investigated."

"Interesting," Minato said although it really wasn't. So far the reactions were just as he expected based on the limited experience he had of his fellow Ultimates. "Take me to the crime scene and you can explain why they suspected Junko while we are walking."

"Okay alright," Makoto said as he took a breath. "I was just going to talk to Miss Ludenberg. She was the one who saw Junko and Sakura last night leaving together."

"So the killing took place during night," Minato stated more to himself. "I'm going to assume the Ultimate Gambler saw them both leave together and then only Junko came back. Later she might have pointed this out which lead to the suspicion on our fashionista friend. What was Junko's reason for the meeting?"

"She said that Ogami attacked her and tried to kill her," Makoto said his voice unreadable. "I don't want to believe that Junko would do that but Ogami didn't strike me as a person to do so."

"Maybe," Minato said somewhat non-committedly. "While I have spent little time with her she did strike me as the honourable sort." Was she honourable enough to announce her intention to fight to the death and then lead her target to that location, but why Junko then? Little clues didn't add up in that strange way that told Minato he wasn't fully informed about the situation.

"There she is," Makoto said pointing out the Ultimate Gambler who was standing outside her dorm room. The Ultimate Gambler saw the three people heading towards them but her expression gave no hint of surprise; a mask worthy of somebody titled the Ultimate Gambler.

"Greetings once more," Minato said as he stepped forward. "We haven't spoken much before have we?"

"I'm afraid that I have never found myself to be of an unstable mind," Celestia Ludenberg said. "I'm sure that you have been busy regarding the situation and haven't had time to hold a conversation with myself. I see you have recovered Miss Fujisaki after all."

"I did indeed," Minato said. "And I heard that you were one of the last people to see Miss Ogami alive. Could you please give me your description of events?"

"So you are also one of those that are doubtful of Enoshima's guilt," Ludenberg said with a smile that gave away nothing; to most people anyway. Minato had slowly started to learn how to read her over these past few days.

"I have not fully familiarised myself with the events yet," Minato said honestly. "I believe Makoto was coming here to get your eyewitness account. I just followed along for now." Chihiro didn't speak but I noticed that she was keeping pretty close to me at the moment. Probably some residual trauma from the very real event that had just happened a couple of minutes ago.

"Yes I did want to find out just what you saw," Makoto said. "And maybe you could explain it to Minato as well."

"Well aren't you on friendly terms," Ludenberg said. "At ten minutes after ten o'clock I saw Ogami and Enoshima head out together and then in the next morning we found the body. It's such a shame that nobody does listen to those rules that were put in place specifically to protect them. Where have you been for the last day anyway?"

"Trapped in a rather unusual place in a manner that exonerates both myself and Chihiro of the possibility of it being one of us that did it. When you said they were leaving can you tell me how they were walking? Did they see you?"

"I think Enoshima saw me," Ludenberg said. "Ogami was walking ahead and Enoshima was following. "They didn't look like they were going to have a friendly chat."

"In addition Ogami was leading which means that she was choosing the location," Minato said. "Can you tell me where the body was?"

"You really don't even know that?" Ludenberg said in amazement that was only slightly feigned. "Ogami was murdered in the girl's locker room."

"Interesting place for a showdown," Minato said ruminating on the implications. It was a place where there actions could be unobserved from all males. Mixing it with the time of the meeting there led to theoretically no other potential eyewitnesses. After all there were only two people who still disobeyed the after-dark rules implemented by the Ultimate Gambler.

"And you saw nobody else leave?" Minato asked.

"I went to sleep afterwards," she said. "Like everybody else was supposed to," she continued passive-aggressively with a voice that hinted of disapproval.

"Thank you very much Miss Ludenberg," Minato said politely. "I think I've got a much greater idea of what might have happened now."

"And you don't believe that it was Enoshima," the Ultimate Gambler said.

"Doesn't it seem a bit straightforward," Minato said. "Since Ogami was leading it was likely that she initiated but Junko won the showdown, but it doesn't make sense to go for the kill when she would be the one suspected, unless it was an accident and she misjudged her strength. Take me to the crime scene Makoto. I would like to see this for myself."

"Okay," Makoto said with clear reluctance in his voice. "I'll go again, but it already has been a while since the body was discovered and we may have to hurry up."

"Excellent," Minato said. "By the way have you thought of any way for a male to gain access to the girl's changing room?"

"No I didn't," Makoto said frowning. "Monokuma said that it was against the rules to lend their E-handbook. Could somebody obtain an E-Handbook by another way?"

"Maybe," Minato said walking towards the second floor stairs only to stop as he spotted the lavender-haired woman dressed in purple. "Ah Kirigiri how has your investigation going?"

"Are you really going to start with that when last I saw you disappeared in front of my eyes," the girl stated coldly.

"You sure have time to think about other things," Minato said trying to find the source of the hostility. "Have you worked out who the murderer was yet?"

"You will find out at the trial," Kirigiri said before turning away and heading past Minato.

"Reverse Justice," Minato said quietly but with his voice carrying firmly to Kirigiri's ears. "Unfairness and an avoiding of accountability." For a moment Kirigiri stopped and Minato could almost feel the emotions that thrummed between them when…

**Thou hast lost our Blessing when you create a Persona of the Justice Arcana.  
You Justice Arcana Social Link has reversed temporarily.**

A wave of sadness briefly washed over Minato before a similarly fleeting spike of anger burst into him as he glared at his fellow amnesiac before he turned away in indifference.

"Come on Makoto let's not waste any more time on saving Junko," Minato said ignoring the woman further. How dare she feel slighted when she was fucking about while Junko's life was at stake?

"Are you sure you want to just leave it like that," Chihiro spoke up her voice quiet.

"We don't have the time to waste on anything but the trial right now," Minato said half-truthfully.

"Okay," Chihiro said uncertainly. "I will go talk to the others and let them know that we're back. I'm not that good of a detective."

"Then we'll see you at the trial," Makoto said, a farewell that I swiftly copied letting the short programmer off to do his work. I walked next to Makoto for a while as we headed up the stairs and towards the girl's locker-room.

"Are you okay Minato?" Makoto asked on the way. "You seemed different for a moment there now; like you just got cold all of a sudden."

"I think I'm okay," Minato said. "I would like to focus on trying to get all the evidence before I worry about smaller stuff."

"Okay but I'm here to talk whenever you need," Makoto said giving him a reassuring look.

"That's much appreciated," Minato said as he finally arrived at the doors leading to the changing room. Both the girls and boys rooms were open and Minato smelt a slight iron smell as he walked through the doorway and immediately saw the body lying on the floor in the middle of the room.

"You're back?" Owada said turning towards the two of them. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Somewhere with no internet connection and genuinely poor hospitality," Minato said. "What can you tell me about the body? How was she killed?" Minato said bending down as he inspected the body. There were holes in her clothes but the wounds were scarred over. This didn't prevent copious amounts of blood from soaking into the tiled floor and Minato frowned at a slight smear on the floor, maybe somebody had stood in the blood but any impression was faded and there were not exactly any footprints leading away from the body.

The most important thing to be taken out of the equation was that the wounds to her torso didn't look to be fatal in anyway. While there was quite a bit of blood the cause of death looked to be the crushed neck that she sported. Minato winced slightly at that. No matter how well trained the body was the neck would always remain a fatal weak point. The assailant would likely have used some tool in order to break the neck. Minato would place money on the tool being the work of one of the weights around here, but it was ultimately irrelevant.

What was more relevant was that there were two major types of wounds on the body which backed up his initial hypothesis. Long thin piercing injuries that looked like they were inflicted using a stiletto and the crushed neck that truly killed her.

"Hey Makoto," Minato said. "What did the E-Handbook say about cause of death?" His E-Handbook had not been updated with the details so he found himself relying on the lucky student.

"It said nothing about the cause of death," Makoto said immediately indicating he was already thinking about that exact topic. "It also said nothing about the time of death."

"That's enlightening," Minato said to himself wishing that there was an Ultimate Coroner or something. Still he had a pretty good idea of just what went down in the whole situation. Now he just had to track down Junko and get the story out of her and see if she could corroborate some of his theories.

His thoughts were cut off by a dreaded annoyance. The sound of a ringing bell coupled with static played over the announcer system and Minato nearly growled as Monokuma showed up on screen.

"Well, well, well I see the last two possible suspects have shown up. Why don't we get this show on the road? Just head down to the red door and don't keep me waiting. Puhuhu."

"Damn bear," Minato growled without any real heat. He had already expected that Monokuma would pull something like that since he had heard about the murder. Still he had been given enough time to at least form a primary evaluation of the subject which would have to do.

"Don't worry we'll save her," Makoto said as he placed a reassuring hand upon Minato's shoulder and the Ultimate Therapist found himself smiling despite the situation. Makoto's confidence in both Junko's innocence and his deductive powers brought a small smile to his face and made him want to prove his friend correct.

**Author Note: I had always meant to write a murder that differed from the normal second trial and then I got to it and realised that I had never written a mystery before in my life.**

**So after I played fifty hours of Town of Salem and a hundred hours of Among Us I returned to try and finish off this section.**

**I may change certain things in this chapter slightly as I'm writing out the trial. Please just pretend you don't see it****.**


End file.
